I have my Wurly sitting right on top of my Rhodes. I mainly use them for recording. While I can get the middle registers on both pianos to sound nearly identical, the main difference to me are the high and low registers.
The wurly's low octaves are preferable to me...consistent and growly. The rhodes' low end on my piano is a bit hit or miss...the old problem of the very long tines drifting in and out of pitch due to the large arc of the tine at the pickup. Often times the low end just sounds plain farty. The high octaves, on the other hand, seem far more useful on the Rhodes. The wurly's high notes are flat-sounding, clipped, and non-sustaining compared to the rhodes. If I run a BBE with the wurly, I can get a reasonable rhodes approximation, but the sustain still isn't there on the high end. I also think the wurly is better for chording and comping, while the rhodes is better for lead runs. The old cliche seems to be true-- the wurly is better for straight rock, in the role of a rhythm guitar, it cuts through better in the mix than my rhodes, but the rhodes is more expressive and does the funk-jazz thing in spades. Having both together gives me the best of both worlds... I keep the wurly dark sounding, and the rhodes bright. I go back and forth between them while I record EP parts, and with the end result, I often can't distinguish which piano I used for which part...but often times I double a part on both pianos...very cool! I guess I compare the two pianos to a Les Paul vs. a Strat. Overall though I prefer the wurly's action, although there are the problems with the ageing preamp, hum, etc.
And the rhodes can't pick up radio stations nearly as well! (funny to hear a radio station through the wurly..it Wurlifies an entire song!) Hey, that just gave me an idea...broadcast my rhodes signal with a radio transmitter, and record it through the wurly's speakers....LOL
