Wurlitzer 140B, choked note, and general tone question

[hiverdude]

Hello!

I have a 140B that I've owned for about 5 years now.  I love the instrument, but have a couple questions.

There is a note, right in the middle of it, that is "choked"... it'll play the attack of the note just fine, and is quite clear, but it has very very little sustain.  I've replaced the reed, but it does exactly the same thing... I look around inside it, but I can't see anything obviously different between it and the notes around it.  Any ideas of what I should look at?

My next question is about the general tone of the instrument.  It sounds great, but I would describe it as very warm and mellow.  High end rolls off quite steeply above 2khz/3khz... I've had the electronics recapped, and the instrument sounded the same before and after...

I'm alright with it sounding like this, because it has its place in a mix, but I keep seeing people describing 140Bs as "spanky" and "bright"... my instrument is NOT this at all.  Just wondering if there are ideas there too.

Many thanks!

Colin

[pianotuner steveo]

Have you checked the letoff for that note and also how high the damper is lifting?
My 140b is very mellow sounding too. It always seemed normal to me, but I haven't played many 140s.

[velo-hobo]

Late to the party but I do not think of the Wurltizer EP as any sort of "spanky" or "bright" sounding instrument. I've always felt it was a very mid-focused instrument, even considering the differences in tone across the various model ranges.

If you can, always use your ears - the way other people describe sounds is the epitome of subjectivity and is chock full of dialect/slang. For example, when I hear "spanky/bright" I think telecaster. Which the Wurly 140b is not, IMHO.

I have worked with a client who felt their 140b was too mid-rangey/muffled/muddy for the studio sounds they were after. So we tried an experiment replacing the original amplifier circuit with a minimalist "bias-supply" type preamp, which bypasses the entirety of the stock electronics and any tone-shaping that happens therein.

The minimalist board includes a HPF to block DC from the pickup output, and we found the cut-off frequency of this filter was fairly low. In studying various schematics I got the impression this is typical of a Wurlitzer EP, with the cutoff frequency often falling in the subsonic range. All it really needs to do is block DC (which is essentially equivalent to 0Hz)

We then altered the HPF circuit, raising the cutoff frequency fairly far into the midrange in an attempt to re-balance the frequency response of the instrument (cut lows, boost everything, see what happens...)

I could detect an admittedly small and somewhat pleasing difference between the stock filter and the modified one, but the client decided to sell the piano and get a completely different instrument that was going to provide the brightness they were after.

This is anecdotal, mind you. But it was a good exploration to have undertaken, since I learned a bit more about the "raw" sound of these instruments.

[velo-hobo]

Oh... well I suppose there is one other question to ask:

It's unclear from your post - what part of the piano are you listening to/recording that you are finding a sharp roll-of above 2-3kHz? Is it some sort of line out/aux out jack mod to the original amp; an aftermarket amp; or are you mic'ing the speaker?

If the latter, is the speaker original? In that case, I would compare the freq response of the speaker output to that of a line/aux out (if present) to see if there is any difference. Weber makes a very nice alnico that is a drop-in replacement for the 140, if you decide the speaker is the culprit.