hey folks
i have an old wurlitzer 200a electric piano.
it has a lovely tone and i have all the parts including original pedal, legs, music stand and stool.

the only problem is that its so noisy.
its not unplayable but id love to start using it live and it would be a sound engineers nightmare.
it hums and crackles randomly and id love to open it up and have a go at sorting it out myself
the most technical thing i've ever done before has been resoldering the jack input on my guitar and im just wondering if anyone has ever serviced one before and would know where to start?
thanks
ogy

Don't do it yourself unless you do something much simpler first. There is a lot going on in a Wurlitzer, and there are a bunch of different iterations of the schematic, so you won't be able to tell for sure what you have to do without a lot of farting around.

You could ask to babysit the process with a real technician, so he can show you what to look out for in the future.

Is this the "student" model with the built-in amp?

Like Steve said, don't open one of these up unless you know what you're doing. We have one that I've been working on, it's the student model and I need to put some direct outputs on it as the built-in amp is shit.

unfortunately i haven't been able to find anyone in ireland who would have a clue or even take the instrument seriously. the one place i found who agreed to have a look at it didn't seem to understand why i wouldn't just chuck it out and buy a triton. they charged me about 40 quid to clean the pots which did reduce the noisiness a bit but didn't really seem to sort out the real issues.

it does have the two built in speakers but has two unmarked outputs (presumably line and headphone) and it has the tremelo control which apparently the student models didn't have.

i guess my best bet is to try and befriend a tech and convince them to take the time to read up on the inner workings.

thanks for the replies!

Whereabouts in Ireland are you? I don't know anywhere specifically but I'd be surprised if there was nowhere in any of the major cities that would deal with it. There's a few places in England and Scotland that specialise in exactly this kind of thing if you can be bothered making the trip or are coming over on tour. At the very least you'll be able to mail order a service manual.

Anywhere that tries to sell you something else when you want an existing item serviced probably isn't to be trusted, and probably doesn't know what they're doing in terms of service...

im near dublin. all the music shops in dublin only seem to like shiny new things and the repairs generally seem to involve sending things back to the manufacturer with an original receipt.

im sure there might be some specialists somewhere but no one has been able to get me in touch with anyone.

id consider checking out england or scotland but the thing is quite heavy to lug over on a ferry id have to find someone driving over.

definitely will look into getting a service manual though

If you do end up bringing/sending it over for service, Cravendale in Yorkshire have a good reputation, and deal exclusively with instruments of that kind of vintage (Hammonds, Rhodes, Clavinets etc...) as do Synthesizer Service in London. There was somewhere in Scotland whose name escapes me where a friend of mine bought some Rhodes parts and they were unbelievably helpful. If I remember it, I'll post but it should be easy enough to find with a Google search.

As for people selling you shiny new equipment one thing that I find lacking in most of the modern keyboards I've tried is an actual physical character. For example the sounds on that Nord retro-whatever it is keyboard are sonically very convincing, but the keyboard plays so differently that I wouldn't play the same things on it that I'd play if I was sat at a real Rhodes or Hammond or whatever. Part of what I enjoy about those instruments is that they are all physically different to play, like different guitars, or the difference between playing a guitar or bass. Not that it has anything to do with the topic at hand, but that's the thing that I think lets all these modelling/sample library efforts down.

thanks for those hopefully at some point ill get it over to london and get it sorted out.

totally agree about modern keyboards. im far more used to playing acoustic piano than any other type of keyboard and even though the wurli action is completely different its just as easy to get a feel for playing, but most digital keyboards feel so sterile to play.

We've got the "green top" student model, and it does have tremelo.

The symptoms you describe (hums and crackles randomly) COULD be caused by dirt, etc., in the small spaces between the individual key reeds and the pickup. This won't necessarily make the instrument noisy in the way a single coil pickup guitar is noisy, but it will make it crackle and cut out unexpectedly. I've experienced this while servicing Wurlitzer 200s.

You COULD attempt to check this yourself fairly easily and without changing the electronics or tuning. It will take a while and requires a fair amount of care.

However, you should always keep in mind what Steve wrote. If you don't feel comfortable working on a piece of gear, either because you fear making it worse or because it's potentially dangerous, don't do it.

First, make sure that the keyboard is unplugged and that there's absolutely no way you can shock yourself.

With the keyboard lid open, locate the reeds (flat pieces of metal with a screw on one side and a solder blob on the other). You'll see that the pickup, which runs the entire length of the keyboard, has little notches for each of the key reeds. You can check for dirt, solder bits, etc., that may be stuck between the reeds and the pickup by taking a narrow strip of paper and running it through that tiny gap. You'll want to do it slowly and with care, since moving or bending the tines may change the tuning.

Alternately, you could spray electrical contact cleaner in that area, but then you'll likely have a lot of residue or discoloration in the bottom of your instrument. You might also try a can of compressed air, but be careful as the pressure may alter the tuning.