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How accurately do you tune your 200 series Wurlitzer?

Started by beginnersluke, December 26, 2019, 07:48:08 PM

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beginnersluke

Tuning question. (I'm retuning basically every reed on a Wurlitzer for the first time.)

How closely or accurately do you tune your Wurly?

Do you try (and succeed) in getting it exactly in tune (say less than a cent off), or do you find something like +/- 3 cents totally acceptable?

(I'm tend to be a perfectionist, even when unnecessary, but getting it right on is really time consuming. between 0 and -3 cents has been not too difficult.)

I do know that you should be able to go +/-4 or 5 cents by sliding the reed forward or back, but perhaps because of inexperience this just doesn't work for me. I'm able to get movement of about 15 cents, but absolutely no precision by trying to move it. (If anyone has advice on this, I'm all eyes/ears.)

Anyway, I was just curious what the consensus goal is when tackling this job. (The Boss TU-2 that your guitar player is using is no more accurate than +/-3 cents anyway, right?)

Thanks,

Luke


DoctorTeeth

Im sure someone more knowledgable will chime in, I work as a guitar tech and when setting intonation and what not on a guitar I use a peterson strobe- the version my piano tuning friends use is the model up that allows for piano tempered tuning. I have never fine tuned a wurli (and dont know anything about the temper of the reeds over octaves) but would think a precise tuner would be your friend and probably alleviate some headache.

beginnersluke

Thanks. I have a strobe tuner. My question was about how hard people try to get things perfect vs. no one on earth would ever notice anyway.

DoctorTeeth

Fair enough! I figured you might since you were talking about pretty close tolerances.

I cant stand those boss tu-2s, or even the newer revamp tu-3 version...I mean they work and lots of people love them but they register slowly and in my experience harder to get accurate tuning quickly...sorry to rant on em- and take your post off subject.

I will be curious to hear what the more experienced wurli whisperers have to say as well since I am pretty close to the voicing and tuning stages on my own 200.

pianotuner steveo

If a Wurli is tuned TOO perfectly, it sounds more like a digital Wurli than a real Wurli. You don't want any notes to be obviously flat or sharp, but slightly off gives it a more "real" sound.

A general rule of thumb... Tune mid section very close, tune low bass slightly flat, and tune treble slightly sharp.

My 2 cents worth. (Pun intended)

1960 Wurlitzer model 700 EP
1968 Gibson G101 Combo organ
1975 Rhodes Piano Bass
1979 Wurlitzer 206A EP
1980 Wurlitzer 270 Butterfly Grand
2009 73A Rhodes Mark 7
2009 Korg SV-1 73
2017 Yamaha P255
2020 Kawai CA99
....and a few guitars...

melveyr

#5
(read below)

melveyr

Just bought the Peterson tuner app because I think it's higher quality than what I was using before. My bass section is within +/- one cent but then the keyboard gets progressively sharper as it moves up. The treble is around 4-5 cents sharp. I think it's great to shoot for zeros, but I think its more important that the sections of the keyboard match and if there is a bias towards the treble section be slightly sharper, or the bass slightly flatter than can sound nice and also make your work easier depending on how the current state of tuning. When I got my Wurlitzer the whole thing was sharp so I just focused on the bass/middle section. I don't mind a slightly sharper treble.

pianotuner steveo

Right. For those who don't know, your ears perceive treble notes as sounding a little flat, so tuning a little sharp may sound better to most people.
1960 Wurlitzer model 700 EP
1968 Gibson G101 Combo organ
1975 Rhodes Piano Bass
1979 Wurlitzer 206A EP
1980 Wurlitzer 270 Butterfly Grand
2009 73A Rhodes Mark 7
2009 Korg SV-1 73
2017 Yamaha P255
2020 Kawai CA99
....and a few guitars...

beginnersluke

This is a good point about getting a more "real" or "organic" sound by not being too neurotic about being right on.

I thought about doing a bit of a stretch tuning thing too.

Luke