140 Restoration questions

[Walkathon]

Hiya, first time poster here.   Already being the proud owner of a butterfly 270, I recently rescued a 140 (not a B) in ok shape but in need of some TLC, and have a small gamut of questions for the board, pls.  Am hoping within the next couple of weekends to take 'er apart and clean 'er up as need be, but...
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* All of the keys sound, but a handful of reeds don't sustain as long, like an electric kalimba or something, so here comes my obligatory Wurli newbie question.  Are those particular reeds bad, or does something else in the chain need adjustment?

* The amp and speaker are nice and loud, with a tolerable modicum of hum, but turning the tremolo knob does nothing.    I'd assume it's common for these things to need a full re-capping?  Anything else I should be checking for in that dept?

* The front bulb's burnt out.  Anyone know offhand of a replacement part?

* It's currently spray painted black, along w/ the legs, but the keys lid is seemingly original.  Am I right in believing the 140's were only mfg'd in that (no offense intended, of course) butt-ugly sandy tan?     Been mulling over whether to try a full restoration, or keep it dark.

* BTW, what was the mfg years for the 140?


Thanks for the help, have been enjoying perusing the forums.

[velo-hobo]

Hi and welcome!

I am pretty familiar with 140Bs, not so much with the earlier 140, but I can attempt to address your questions.

"Dead" sounding reeds could be a number of things - sometimes reeds do just seem to turn into duds, and replacing them with a new or known good reed with no other adjustments will resolve the problem.  Other causes might be a reed screw which is insufficiently tightened (sometimes I find reeds which are loose either from vibration or perhaps hack attempts to tune the reed flat without resorting to adding solder), cracked reed screw washers, or sub-optimal strike point for that particular reed.

Non-functional vibrato could be a faulty connection somewhere, a bad pot, or more likely that the caps and resistors in the vibrato circuit have drifted in value far enough to prevent oscillation from occurring (could also be a fault with the transistor which drives the oscillator circuit).  I have found this last case to be the issue with many solid-state wurlitzers I have worked on (140 and 200 series) - replacing the caps and resistors with known good components of the proper spec usually results in marked vibrato improvement.  But it is worth checking the physical wiring and solder points beforehand, just in case it is something as simple as a bad connection.

Regarding the bulb, I am not sure about replacements.  I believe Ken Rich sells a neon bulb intended for 200-series pianos which may perhaps be workable.  I typically install a domed LED unit in 140B pianos that I restore since it removes a potential source AC hum from the control area and should last a very long time.  This requires a bit of knowledge about how to get a proper DC supply voltage for whatever LED you are using, but it is not terribly complicated stuff.

As far as I know, 140-series pianos came only in the butt-ugly schoolhouse tan/beige/whatever, in varying degrees of flecked-ness.  I have seen quite a few painted black [aftermarket] and they look pretty sharp.  It all depends on your tastes and how well the finish has worn.  I think some people have reported success using flecky rock-texture spraypaint to replicate the original finish.  I have a 140B that I am thinking of stripping and doing an oil finish, since I think they used a pretty decent veneer on the case wood.   In any case if the veneer turns out to be ugly it will get something other than butt-tastic beige.

I believe the 140 was made in 1962-65ish, not sure on exact dates.   Anyone have some concrete info out there?  The readily-available info out on the net seems inconsistent.  Pretty sure they stopped making the 120 around 1962 and I haven't seen a 140b which is older than 1965, but I may be misremembering this stuff and/or making things up.

[pianotuner steveo]

Dead sounding reeds can also be caused by being dirty, especially around the mounting bolt. Try removing one, cleaning with a light oil, dry it, then remount it making sure t is also clean around the bolt hole.

Wurli reeds that are truly 'bad' are reeds that are breaking. Before they snap, they usually go real flat and continue to get flatter.

I THINK the 140 and the 140B were both offered at the same time.  The 140 may have started in 1961, because I believe that was the last year for the 700/120. I know for a fact the 140B was introduced in 1962. I believe it stopped being produced in 1967/8 when the 200 (non A) was introduced. I'm not sure when the 140 (non B) version was stopped, but there was also the 145 and the student version 146 in this time frame somewhere.

[Walkathon]

Huge thanks on the replies.  Hoping to get back to it this weekend, I'll post progress pics as this journey commences ...

[velo-hobo]

Ah yes I had forgotten that dead-sounding reeds could be caused by insufficient connection to ground - if they do not make good contact then their signal will not be strong as that is a key part of the capacitive tone generation scheme.  I do think there is something to notion of reeds going dead that are not on the verge of breaking, though I don't have a clear idea as to the mechanism for such a condition.  I have had reeds go extremely flat before breaking, as is typical, but they didn't seem to lose much tone or sustain up until the final death blow.

But  I have swapped dead-sounding used reeds for new or NOS reeds and seen marked improvement in tone and sustain.  This after thoroughly cleaning the old reed and its interface with the harp to be sure there wasn't a poor ground connection.  (BTW one way to identify whether a replacement reed has already been in use is to check for a bright spot on the otherwise dark underside of the reed, which is a telltale sign of many hammer strikes.)

Interesting info about 140 vs 140B too Steve.  I would imagine that they were not made concurrently for very long as it seems unlikely they would have maintained tooling for both versions for an extended period of time.  More likely that they continued to assemble 140 pianos from parts on hand until stocks were depleted while ramping up 140B production, since the 140B was essentially an improved design in many aspects.

I should also add that the one example of a 146 I have personally encountered is based on a 140B and not a 140.  It has the exact same amp, even with the vibrato components present on the board (but lacking wiring or a pot to engage it), and a modified control section on the bass cheekblock for toggling the speaker on/off and selecting self/ensemble for headphone output.  Why it was not designated the 146B is beyond me.

[Walkathon]

Finally got around to a round of 140 repair this weekend.    Removed the keys, vacuumed it out, removed / cleaned / replaced about a 1/3 of the tines.
Anyway, here's a quick perfunctory summary video of where I'm at w/ it so far ... apologies that the lighting's a bit dark.

Dunno if embedding is possible here, here's a vimeo link:
https://vimeo.com/59349143

[pianotuner steveo]

Hmmm... In your video you say that the A reed has lost some solder, yet it is flat, not sharp. (increasing the solder flattens the note) Does the note keep getting flatter when you hit it? if so, it is breaking. As far as the poor sustain, what I would try next, on the F for example, is to remove the reed, clean it, clean around the bolt hole, and remount it to see if it sounds any different.

Be sure to mount it straight in the slot so it does not short out.

[Walkathon]

Correct, the A reed has almost no solder on it at all, yet is flat, and the math didn't add up for me either.    *shrugs*  I'm assuming they put the wrong reed on there in the first place?  I've been only taking off one reed at a time throughout the process, so I definitely didn't put something back where I shouldn't have.

Hmm, for the F reed, I had done the procedure exactly like you said, but I'm gonna go through it one more time ... perhaps there's some add'l crud around the bolthole I might've missed.  I guess worse case, I'll finish cleaning up all of the reeds, then will determine how many of 'em are outright duds and need to be replaced.   I love, love saving old gear, but am keeping an eye on this one so it doesn't become a time / money pit.  I'm assuming the reeds should sit as near flush (horizontally and vertically) into the gap for maximum pickup, ya?

Thx again for the help / ideas, btw.

Hmmm... In your video you say that the A reed has lost some solder, yet it is flat, not sharp. (increasing the solder flattens the note) Does the note keep getting flatter when you hit it? if so, it is breaking. As far as the poor sustain, what I would try next, on the F for example, is to remove the reed, clean it, clean around the bolt hole, and remount it to see if it sounds any different.

Be sure to mount it straight in the slot so it does not short out.

[pianotuner steveo]

Yes, it sounds like someone put in the wrong reed in, in that case. (A)

And yes, reeds should be flush, and staright in the slot so it does not short against the sides when it vibrates. Sparks will be visible in the dark if they short.

[FixerUpper]

I'm still working on my basket case 140. You can get a replacement bulb at Radio Shack. Be careful with the Varistors in the vibrato circuit. They are delicate and I still haven't found a replacement. I had some that I thought were working but they aren't now. I'm not sure if I just imagined them working. If you find something that works let me know. I'll do the same. The same goes for those germanium transistors.

[Jezza]

The dead sounding notes could also be because of strike point problems.  I had a bunch on my 112 that had little sustain, and moving the hammer forward or back usually made a huge difference. 

If your hammer felts have big grooves in them the felt itself could be muting the reed also.  You can file the felts down once or twice before you have to re-felt the hammers.

[pianotuner steveo]

It is faster and easier to adjust the strike point by moving the reed bar in or out, rather than adjust the hammers individually. Good point about the deep grooves also,