Wurlie tricks / mods ?

[Mintlake at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/5/97 5:32:13 AM, Juergen.Haible at nbgm.siemens.de (Haible
Juergen) wrote:

<<As this will be my first electromechanical e-piano, I have a few 
questions to all who own
a wurlie, or even better, have already done repairs on it:

(1) 	As I was told, the typical distortion at hard playing comes from 
the mechanical parts only, so
      I wouldn't loose anything, if I built a "modern" replacement for 
the electronics, would I ?
(2) 	In case I keep / fix the original circuit, are there any 
interesting mods?
(3) 	Does an enhancement of the electronics in terms of noise etc. 
make any sense at all, or is
      the capacitive pickup system the main source of noise ?

Sure there are more questions to come ... any hints / tips / tricks 
highly welcome !
>>

There are lots of trcks to getting a Wurly in top playing condition.  One
trick that has saved me lots of time over the years that I will pass on.
 Regarding tuning:  Remove solder to raise the pitch of the note.  Use a very
sharp knife and slice off thin slivers instead of filing.  Filing causes
those horrible noises when the filings get caught between the reed and
pickup.  Check the pitch often.  It is very easy to remove too much -
especially on the high notes.  You can "cheat" and use the mounting bolt
torque to change the pitch a few cents one way or the other.  There is a
window of proper torque - too tight and the bolt will break - too loose and
the pitch will be unstable.  If you remove too much solder, adding solder is
a pain.  Heat the reed too much and the existing solder can melt and spread
causing the solder to be too wide to fit in the slot in the pickup assembly.
 Then the reed must be removed, the sides shaved off to the correct width,
remounted, and more solder added.  There is a better way.  If the reed is
just a little sharp, instead of adding solder you can change the mechanical
resonance by altering the spring constant of the mechanical resonator.  This
is done with a very fine toothed half round machinists file.  File in the shou
lder of the reed down by the mounting bolt.  Again be care full not file too
much especially on the high notes.  Check the pitch frequently.  BTW this is
how accordian and harmonica reeds are lowered in pitch. 

Tuning Wurlitzers used to drive me nuts and take a long time.  After many
opportunities to practice it's just not that bad.  It does take practice. 

Larry Church