Messages

1

The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Wurlitzer picking up radio stations

« on: February 19, 2021, 07:16:33 AM »

We put a new volume pot in it and everything's back to normal. Go figure. He might have broken the old one when he tried lifting the lid with the knobs still attached as soon as it got home.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Wurlitzer picking up radio stations

« on: February 13, 2021, 07:19:44 PM »

Yeh, and he just bought the house so he didn't really like that suggestion...

Who knows if the receptacles are properly grounded. Using a cheater plug made no difference, so I wouldn't be surprised.

3

The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Wurlitzer picking up radio stations

« on: February 13, 2021, 05:44:36 PM »

This is a new one for me. Been searching the internet to see if anyone else has had this issue, to no avail. Maybe someone here has had this happen to them?

I just fully rebuilt a 200 for a friend of mine. Fresh caps, resistors, new reed bar shield. It sounded great here when he came to pick it up. Clean signal, low noise floor. Until he took it home to his studio and it became a radio. Radio signals coming through as strong as the piano signal. I suggested moving it to a different spot to see if that helps, and it seems that there were some spots in the house that were a little better, but not by much. I took a look at it in person today, and it really was pretty bad. Re-tightening all the ground screws seemed to help, but it also seemed that dang near anything I touched would have a different effect on the noise. Even how close we stood to the piano seemed to affect it. He asked if I could line the lid with copper tape, so we did that and connected it to a ground screw, and that helped a little bit more. So it's more acceptable now, but still noticeable. When he got this thing, it didn't work at all until I rebuilt the amp, so we have no idea if it had this issue before, and the only other place we've heard it working properly without any radio interference was at my place. I did point out that he unfortunately lives less than a quarter mile from some massive radio towers.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: 200 Series Transistors

« on: January 27, 2021, 08:45:09 AM »

Awesome, thanks!

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / 200 Series Transistors

« on: January 24, 2021, 07:36:51 PM »

Does anyone know what the original transistors in the 200 amp are? The schematics only give "Wurlitzer Part Numbers" and I can't seem to find the actual specs on the originals or equivalents.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: 140B Vibrato Noise

« on: January 11, 2021, 06:41:36 AM »

I removed all the wiring for the phono input and the external speaker, and that got rid of the clicking and thumping, and lowered the overall noise floor! Not like we were going to use jacks those anyway.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / 140B Vibrato Noise

« on: January 09, 2021, 04:15:59 PM »

Anyone ever encounter a thumping or clicking noise from the vibrato on a 140B? The noise starts as a clicking noise, and turns into more of a thump when the pot is at 3/4, which is when the vibrato also kicks in. The one I'm working on has both that won't seem to go away. Amp rebuilt, new preamp transistors, grounded socket added, volume and vibrato pots replaced, vibrato bulb replaced with LED/resistor mod from a Vintage Vibe video. The original incandescent lamp was shot when I got the piano (a lug had snapped off from the base of the bulb). I didn't discover that until after I had rebuilt the amp - then I did the LED/resistor mod. Same thing happened before and after that. The only thing that seems to kinda work is grounding lug 3 of the vibrato pot, but that only stops the noise when the pot is fully off.

VV video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKYInz0le5Y&t=191s

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: 146b Hot Resistors

« on: January 06, 2021, 08:08:32 AM »

That's what I had hoped. The smell was more disconcerting than the heat. Thanks.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / 146b Hot Resistors

« on: January 04, 2021, 09:17:05 AM »

Is it normal for the large wattage resistors to get really hot? Specifically #s 13 an 16, 220ohm. I mean like smells-like-a-hot-glue-gun and yikes-ouch-to-the-touch hot. The amp was just rebuilt, so these are brand new resistors, and the voltages on all the transistors check out.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Low volume and no vibrato on model 206

« on: November 18, 2020, 12:25:21 PM »

The jumper has been cut.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Low volume and no vibrato on model 206

« on: November 16, 2020, 07:22:11 AM »

I was under the impression that the 206 only needed the pot to enable the vibrato and the 206A needed the kit. The pot I've added to this 206 hasn't enabled the vibrato, but it does attenuate the piano's volume when turned to 50%, then back to full volume after 75%.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Low volume and no vibrato on model 206

« on: November 14, 2020, 07:04:25 PM »

Update: New transistors (and new resistors near T6) brought the volume back up to normal and voltage readings back to spec. Still no vibrato, and it brought out quite a hiss storm, which I suspect was there all along, but now I can actually hear    Every resistor I replaced measured about 2X its original value, I suspect the other few dozen on the board are probably just as off. Will at least try replacing the ones in the vibrato circuit to see if that gets working.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Low volume and no vibrato on model 206

« on: November 07, 2020, 09:42:23 AM »

Just wanted to see if anyone else had the same issue and how they solved it. An intact model 206 was brought to me to fix the low volume and have the vibrato knob added. Replacing all the electrolytics did not solve the volume issue and the new vibrato knob did nothing. Seems like the preamp is not getting the voltage that it should - only 8.4V is coming from the emitter and 9V from the base of TR6, almost half less than the 15.5V and 16.5V I should be getting. There's 22V at the collector, which is in the ballpark of 24V, so everything upstream of TR6 should be fine. However, this is causing lower readings at TR1 and TR3 also, which I figure might be affecting the vibrato as well.

Before I go hunting down some replacement transistors, is there anything obvious I'm missing? I might check the resistors around TR6 to see if they're OK, since I did find the two right before the vibrato pot (52 and 34) had almost doubled in resistance.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Another 120 Oddity

« on: August 29, 2020, 01:53:54 PM »

The amp in my 120 was potted in wax when I got it. All along the base of it and around the edges. Had to chip it all out to even get the amp out! Even after cleaning, the amp has a nice waxy residue to it - ick. Was that something original to the piano? I'm asking because I'm trying to chase down some hum, and because there's still some wax that remains on the case, I don't think the amp chassis makes perfect contact with the electrostatic paint, which I would think it would need to.

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Other Keyboards & Software Synths / Re: Pianet CH Radio Circuit and Pickups

« on: August 27, 2020, 01:59:51 PM »

Interesting, even the power supply is on a separate board. Totally different than my Cembalet!

Anyway, those caps look new. The sticky pads appear to be the clavinet.com replacements too.

The wires are attached to the pickup and reed, right?

Just want to rule out anything obvious. Make sure ALL the wires are attached where they should be.All the way down to the output jacks.  Reflow the solder at any suspect joints.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Wurlitzer 120 Line Out

« on: August 10, 2020, 06:55:10 AM »

Haha I always like it when there's no soldering involved!

I mic'ed the speaker up to record a couple tracks yesterday, and it works perfectly well. This thing will is going to live in the studio, so line out isn't too important right now I guess.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Wurlitzer 120 Line Out

« on: August 09, 2020, 12:16:32 PM »

Has anyone ever installed one on this model? Recommend for best sound/least obtrusive mod? I was thinking there might be a way to pad down the existing headphone jack, no?

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Wurlitzer 700 help

« on: August 08, 2020, 09:40:19 AM »

Mine does not have the shims under the harp. I sent the same pictures to VV and to them it looked like the blocks had been removed from 1-34 and that I'd need to make my own spacers (which I had already done at that point).

My money is on inconsistency or experimentation at the Wurlitzer factory as the explanation for the inconsistencies. If the majority were built with spacers and no shims, or shims and no spacers, that would explain the size of the VV set. Heck, even the amp in this thing does not quite match the schematic.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Wurlitzer 700 help

« on: August 07, 2020, 10:27:13 AM »

Instead of dealing with returning the kit in whole or partial, I cut 34 new spacers to make the dampers work with the piano. Worked like a charm.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Wurlitzer 700 help

« on: August 06, 2020, 10:10:01 AM »

Bumping this old thread...

I ordered the 120 set from VV for my late '59 120 and am having the same issue. Mine has the spacers on 35-54. They appear to be identical to the one on Jam's. The old dampers on the piano correspond to the spacers - i.e. dampers 1-34 are the same height as the dampers+spacers on 35-54. VV's are all the same height as the old 35-54 dampers - perfect for those, but too short for 1-34.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Model 120 missing all front rail felts

« on: July 31, 2020, 07:20:39 AM »

I did! Only place I could find one that was 1M was on Parts Express. I installed it and it works fine, but it didn't resolve the noise - still a low hum on the first third or so, then the softer buzzing in the middle third, with the hum returning on the final third. Actual signal volume doesn't really increase past the halfway point, but that's fine, since it's pretty dang loud and clear by then.

It's honestly far from the worst noise I've heard. I'm probably just being picky at this point and should just move on to getting the mechanical side of the piano in order (boyfriend says I'm turning into a cork sniffer LOL). Heck, my Pianet hums louder when it sits on the Hammond.

Once I get that taken care of, I am considering replacing the coupling caps per Tropical Fish's suggestion, as they're the only things that haven't been replaced in the amp. The only thing that's confusing is the schematic since they don't give values for any of the ceramic caps, just numbers. Are they in pico or microfarads? My gut is telling me that anything with a decimal (like .02) is micro, and anything without (like 330) is in pico.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Model 120 missing all front rail felts

« on: July 27, 2020, 12:25:25 PM »

Yep, the metal and brown ones.

I still don't think that red disc is the death cap. It's not connected to ground. It's across pins 3 & 6 (I think) of the 6V6. None of the other ceramics are either. The only thing that seems to be in a death cap position is that wax...which I replaced with an equivalent new film cap anyway.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Model 120 missing all front rail felts

« on: July 27, 2020, 11:05:48 AM »

I'm second guessing myself on something else now too. I replaced these two caps with electrolytics - was that correct? They were the only other two polarized caps on the schematic.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Model 120 missing all front rail felts

« on: July 27, 2020, 09:09:28 AM »

I've got a new volume control on order - we'll see if that helps clear things up.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Model 120 missing all front rail felts

« on: July 26, 2020, 09:40:42 PM »

Also noticed FWIW: pins 1, 4, and 5 of the octal plug show continuity to each other, even wiring harness is unplugged from the amp. Unhooked the speaker and the speaker showed continuity, even tho it works just fine! The resistance is measuring around 3.2 ohms, that must just be low enough to make the continuity setting on the DMM beep.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Model 120 missing all front rail felts

« on: July 26, 2020, 06:35:21 PM »

It seems to be working fine with the rest of the amp being rebuilt. Everything is new except the tubes, output jacks and the volume pot. There's a low hum in the low third of the volume range, then more of a quieter buzzy hum in the middle third, then the low hum returns on the final third.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Model 120 missing all front rail felts

« on: July 26, 2020, 09:43:11 AM »

I should probably just leave that wax then? It goes from the fuse to the chassis.

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The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Model 120 missing all front rail felts

« on: July 25, 2020, 11:29:43 PM »

Thanks Steveo! I'm gonna get a new felt strip for the white keys and new felts for the black keys.

Found a couple other oddities about this one. At least to me - I've never worked on a 100 series Wurli before, so some of this is new to me!

I decided to rebuild the amp, but it appeared to be sealed to the bottom of the piano with some kind of wax. I had to chip all of this wax away to even get to the screws that hold the amp to the case. Is that wax normal?

The amp was easy enough to rebuild, but I noticed that it did not quite match the schematic that's available online. For what it's worth, October 1959 is written on the keys, so that's likely the date of the piano, perhaps they had revised the amp by then. The serial badge says it's a type 1200-1 amp. Anyway, I stuck to replacing exactly what was actually in the amp. What did concern me is that the schematic showed the fuse on the same side of the mains as the transformer and the "death cap" on the opposite side. However, in this amp, both the fuse and cap seem to be on the non-transformer side. If I am going to upgrade this to a grounded three-prong socked (which I would like to), which side should the fuse be on?

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Other Keyboards & Software Synths / Re: Pianet CH Radio Circuit and Pickups

« on: July 23, 2020, 07:18:35 AM »

Have you replaced the electrolytic capacitors yet? That should be first order of business since they're over 50 years old and have become leaky. Looks like there's two 1000uf, one 50uf (use 47uf), one 25uf, one 5uf (use 4.7uf), and one 100uf. Use the same or greater voltage rating, and be mindful of their polarity. Discharge the only ones by clipping a lead from the positive end to the chassis/ground, unless ya want a nice lil jolt! Which I'm sure ya don't...

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Other Keyboards & Software Synths / Re: Pianet CH Radio Circuit and Pickups

« on: July 22, 2020, 10:09:45 AM »

Interesting - your radio circuit is on a separate board. Mine has all of the circuitry all on one board. I bet that having it in that metal case helps with the shielding, mine is prone to picking up other radio stations sometime!

Anyway, to answer your question about where this is on the schematic, it is in the upper left. The black thing with the red stripe is diode OA79, the three legged black thing is transistor AF101, the yellow thing is the radio transformer (squiggly lines on the schem). The transformer should have four leads which attach to the four lugs near it on the board.

I'm assuming that the black wire with the braid are the wires to the harp. The bare braided wire should go to the reeds ("zunge") and the black one should go to the pickup ("elektrode"). Make sure there is continuity between the ends of the wires.

What about your sticky pad situation? Any originals would be completely disintegrated by now, meaning that playing any key would not generate any sound. If that's the case, pluck any of the reeds with a wooden dowel or plastic pen and see if that generates any sound. Don't use your fingers, there's a risk of electric shock!