Messages

1

Sources For Generic Parts & Maintenance Materials / Shielded Wurlitzer 200a Cables Anyone?

« on: October 31, 2020, 06:46:55 AM »

Hey,
im looking all over the web to find the colored and foil shielded cables that are connected on the PCB of a wurlitzer 200a.
While im having a 200, i want to upgrade those for maybe less microphonic cables.
Any hints? Im located in Germany btw.

2

The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Shaking Power Transformer?

« on: October 11, 2020, 02:33:47 PM »

Jens, thank you very much for your support:)
Yes i have the schematics!

3

The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Re: Shaking Power Transformer?

« on: October 11, 2020, 08:32:33 AM »

Hey, i just measured the Voltage of the 1000uF Filter Cap and i'm just getting 42V, which is okay i guess?
Did i measured it right? I attached a photo. I know you can't measure caps while being build in, but i did it, and it seems to work as it got a 1600uF.

Any suggestions for the shaking power transformer? is it normal? Its the same feeling as touching the electricity meter in my flat.

Also somebody modified the the amp i guess? The aux cable is connected to the yellow poti on the board which is numbered as 48 in the manuals, but i can't find out what its good for.

Still waiting for the pickup shields. I hope this will fix all the hum. I read that the hum can only be from the reedbar, as when the rca is unplugged the amp isn't humming to much. I checked for dirt or shortings and bad groundings but i dindn't found a problem... i thing i'll just take the pickups out and clean them.
 In the meantime i twisted the power cords ans wrapped them in copper. Didn't change nothing.

4

The Wurlitzer Electric Piano / Shaking Power Transformer?

« on: October 08, 2020, 11:21:36 AM »

Hey,
I just got myself a wurli 200! Timestamp beneath the keyboard says its from 1972.  Yay. Now the first thing i want to do, probably like everyone, is trying to get rid of the hum.
I just ordered that pickup shields. While waiting for them, i wanted to isolate the Powercables from audio cables etc..
Now i just recognized, that the entire wurli is softly vibrating. It feels a little like a Purring cat, just not that heavily, very very sublte:D
I plugged in headphones to make sure that the speakers are not the vibrating part, so it has to be the Power Transformer i guess. Which also makes totally sense to me.
Seems like the transformer slowly vibrating itself apart? I wouldn't mind, as its somehow cool (and cheaper) than replacing it, but i could imagine that that introduces hum? Do you also feel your wurli to softly vibrating?

i also checked the transformer, which seems not to be isolated on the bottom. Would it make sense to try isolating it with layers of copper and rubber to not be part of the grounding to reduce hum? (heat/grounding problems)

Also one thing im wondering about is, that the Power Transformer is obviously a 220v/50hz (big stamp on top:D). Buuuut they changed the Voltage in germany to 230v back in the 80s. Anyone has experience with that?
The pre-owner just used it like that...
Some Pictures included:
https://imgur.com/a/rncfgZg

5

The Fender Rhodes Electric Piano / Re: Sound Adjustment Advices?

« on: February 19, 2019, 05:08:21 AM »

Hey,
thanks for your time.

First what is the tine to pickup spacing, especially in the bass?

I measured the Tine-Pickup distance. Starting from the Bassside with 3-4mm
distance. In the middle section they are a little uneven (to be equally loud)- about 2-4mm distance.
In the high note section it's about the same as in the middle section.
I made some pictures too, which are attached here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cieXlctDMni-3nCxqvDDRpDXBvHL3PdE?usp=sharing

Second, I assume you've played with the voicing screws in the bass to bring out more overtones, have you?

Exactly, i set the tines hight with the voicing screw, so that the tines are just at the top end of the pickup.
But it wasn't that easy. Lots of notes didn't seem to work in all positions. So they are all quite uneven.

What happens to the sound if you turn the bass control down?

I took the signal straight from the harp, so there is no bass boost knob in between.

Finally, many Rhodes sound tubby unless one puts a dip in the frequency response around 200 Hz, give or take about 50 Hz, depending on the amp and speakers/cabinet.

Sorry, my englisch isn't that perfect. A dip at 200Hz and also at 50Hz? I'll try that!

What are you using for speakers and speaker cabinet?

I  use yamaha HS8, with a Twin Reverb Simulation of Amplitube.

BTW, what happens to the bass sound if you play ff?

I made a video once again.

https://youtu.be/VVnyTzWs-pg

The Bass test is right at the beginning. First without cabinet or eq and at 0:48 starting again with the cabinet on.

I really dig the sound of Lonnie Liston Smith, like in this song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVnq0Qy20sM
The rhodes sits so good in the mix.

6

The Fender Rhodes Electric Piano / Sound Adjustment Advices?

« on: February 17, 2019, 08:39:40 AM »

Hey,
I "refurbished" a rhodes mkI '79 about maybe half a year ago.
Since then i voiced it bit more harsh, to get some harmonics out of it.
To me it still sounds dull...

My chain is: Straight from the harp-> Roland Rubix44 Hi-Z Input-> Ableton

Now i made a comparison: https://youtu.be/b_G6Vi6-97c
 
From 0:00 to 1:38 this is the straight signal from the instrument.
From 1:38 to 2:20 i used amplitube to emulate TwinReverb+ added Eq and Comp.
From 2:20 to 3:00                 -   /      /    -                       + Small Stone Phaser emulation. (Why does it sound so harsh?)

I think it sounds a little dull and muddy. What do you think?
Also compared to emulations, it sound pretty dark with less energy in the mids.
Except for the highest Pickups, which give harmonic destortion, becourse they're so close.
Somehow i like that uneven feeling.

I don't think  getting any typ of preamp will fix this?!
Just ordered the Behringer Copy of the SmallStone Phaser and the Boss Chorus-Ch1 copy, to get it a little out of the box.

I also attached the ableton and amplitube settings for transparency.

Let me know what you thinking.

Cheers

7

The Fender Rhodes Electric Piano / Re: My first rhodes "repaired"

« on: July 01, 2018, 10:01:25 AM »

I tried to get the tines as close as possible to the pickup. Then i noticed that it kills the sound in a strange way. Now i'm ~ 0.5-1.2mm away from the pickups, depending on the loudness of the individual notes. I leveled the tines on the higher notes to the center of the pickup. The ones in the middle and lower region are leveled above the pickup center so that the bottom of the tine is  slightly above the center.

8

The Fender Rhodes Electric Piano / My first rhodes "repaired"

« on: June 29, 2018, 10:12:10 AM »

Hey,

I just got a 79 Stage Mark I for 900€. My first EP ever. It was quite used so i started repairing.

First i rebushed the keys, the back and the balance rail.           --> No loose key action anymore.
I also used teflon spray for lubing, but im sure that isn't the way professionals would do.
For the backrail i got an 5mm piano cloth.
 I know its thicker than the original, but i wanted to try silencing the noise from the keys falling back.

It showed up that i fucked my action with that. So i shimmed the complete harp plus the harp support.
Also i used to get my keydip quite even with this.                     --> 9,5 to 9,9 mm

I leveled the keys a little, but it doesn't need to be perfect for me. Someday i'll might be more into that.


Next step was to get the pickups done.
I had seen the pickup winding "maschine" http://www.shadetreekeys.com/2011/09/09/pickups/ build by Shadetree Keys. Thanks for the nice programm btw!
A cheap and funky construction. So i rewinded 6-7 Pickups with it. It worked pretty good for me. 180 Ohm each and total output was ~1350 Ohm.

Escapment was quite similar to the preferences in the Serice Manual so i left it.

Voicing was done as well is i could. And tuned it quite equal with abletons build in strobo tuner.

I have some bad pictures for you to see my folish reparings as im sure there'll be a shitstorm on shimming harp support etc 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1blOQWWTOjMXiUykdpY92sdgDEI8M4ZXM

I also have an audio file recorded to hear how it ended up.
Signal chain: Presonus TubePre 2-> XLR-> Proceed AVP2-> shitty laptop sound cable-> Ableton -> little Reverb + Phaser

https://www97.zippyshare.com/v/TAmazeud/file.html


So now im curious if i should mod it with felt hammers and VV tines to get more bark?
As i only payed 40€ for cloth and wire i could afford new stuff. 
I only read hate about moding different to the construction year. But would love to get it barkier though.


Love&Peace