Wurlitzer 145: Fix it, keep it, sell it?

[ElectricPuppy]

I've got a Wurlie 145, but it's the transistorized amp, not the tube one. I think that's a 145B?

 

Anyway, it's been parked in my garage for EONS. There's some troublesome background buzz that I keep trying to find and fix, but haven't nailed it down yet. Some sort of ground is broken somewhere, I'm sure.

 

I had long ago stripped off the ugly ugly ugly beige coating and repainted it in gloss black. The action's in decent shape, probably could stand to re-level the keys. The speaker cone has a hole in it, needs a new speaker. Mostly in tune, still.

 

If this was yours, what would you do? Fix it and keep it? Fix it and sell it? Or just sell it off in its current state? (A box of pieces, the legs, still have the pedal, never had the lid.)

 

Thoughts?

 

[ramkeys]

For the awful noise problem, a reed is probably grounding against the frame. Take a matchbook and check the distance between both sides of each reed.More than one reed is the culprit.

For tuning, slight adjustment is possible by using a nut driver...tight goes sharp, loosen to go flat. DO NOT USE A RACHET, too much tight can snap off the nut.

For keybed, replace felt by taking one key at a time,clean out old felt, use good quality new felt,the least porous you can find. Use ELMER'S GLUE !!!! sparingly, glue both sides and let dry using REVERSE tweezers, which push out.

You probably will want to keep the new-sounding keyboard.

RICHARD

[ElectricPuppy]

Nice tips, thanks!

[tspit74]

As an owner of 3 Wurli's, I'd keep it.

 

Actually, I have a dead 146B (The piano lab model), which looks exactly like yours but with the ugly beige coating. Look into getting it fixed. Can't be too expensive, right? Besides, it's not worth much broken but it's quite desirable when it's in working order. You've got the pedal and legs too. I'd get it fixed.

 

It sure looks purty.

[ElectricPuppy]

Yeah, what was up with that beige crap? It looked horrible. I can't imagine it even looked cool back when beige was king. Hideous.

[Plink Floyd]

They were beige so school systems would buy them. According to the Code of Educational Administrators "...any and all materials, tools, classroom aides, and, really, anything you blow taxpayers money on, should be as butt-ugly as possible, in keeping with the time-honored policy of making students as wretched and depressed as possible during their dreary hours of incarceration at school. This policy does not apply to furnishings in administrative offices, which of course should be as opulent and luxurious as possible".

[tspit74]

My 145 tube model was painted black at some point just like yours. Also have a beige 206A that I keep at a friend's house for jamming. Unfortunately, we're not doing a lot of that now.

[ramkeys]

Another tip for you, puppy.....

Reeds are spring steel and lose the ability to sound good after much use.Order a few of each length and have them around.

This can also cause a note to be way loud or distorted. Sometimes you can turn the reed upside down (solder up) and it gets more bearable. If you buy new ones, they always have a bit too much solder and are flat, need to be filed down a bit.After that,use painters yellow tape to get all shavings out before turning on. Get my phone # from Paolo if you need me.

RICHARD