Wurlitzer vs Fender Rhodes

[Lemsky]

Which one do you prefer between these 2 amazing pianos ?

It's a difficult choice 'cause both pianos are awesome....

 

p.s. who knows a site where are available to buy some wurlitzer ? (not ebay! )

[jff]

Sometimes Vintage Vibe has them for sale.

 

http://www.vintagevibe.com/c-9-vintage-key...s-for-sale.aspx

 

I used to own a Wurlitzer Student Model 206. It sounded amazing, but it had three issues that made me part with it:

-no vibrato (could have been pretty easily added)

-no line out for an external amplifier (built in speakers not loud enough for use in a band setting)

-built into a bulky base/speaker cabinet which made it very difficult to move

 

If I were going to buy another electric piano I'd probably get a Rhodes.

 

Here's another cool electric piano site, but it's currently being rebuilt.

 

http://my.stratos.net/~riderz/wurlitzer.html

[Lemsky]

thanks for the links

[Lemsky]

Which is the best wurlitzer "clone" ?

[ginandcigarettes]

Which is the best wurlitzer "clone" ?

 

The Nord Electro is very good. The velocity switching is almost imperceptible. Plus you get a great B3 and Rhodes. I find it needs a little compression and a tube in the chain to warm the whole thing up, though.

 

The Yamaha Motif and Motif ES (and their cheaper siblings with the same sounds -- S90 and S90 ES) are also excellent and give you a few more options if you like to play with that stuff.

 

Kurzweil is probably number three in my book. I don't like Roland's or Korg's EPs, but it might just be prejudice (something about the EQ).

 

All these things run at least $1200. You could probably get an actual Wurly for $200 to $800 depending on the condition.

 

I hope this helps!

[jff]

The Wurlitzers I've seen have typically been in the $500 to $700 range. They're still somewhat easy to find. The problem with them is that the reeds break if you are heavy handed and can be difficult to replace. Once you find replacements you have to tune them, which involves working with solder.

[Lemsky]

thanks

[TCP]

The Yamaha Motif and Motif ES (and their cheaper siblings with the same sounds -- S90 and S90 ES) are also excellent and give you a few more options if you like to play with that stuff.

I've used both the Motif and the S90 a lot and I have to say that the sounds are TERRIBLE on it. But that's just my opinion.

[ray]

The Kurzweil is actually an excellent emulation, if you have the Classic Keys ROM expansion. In fact, I think Mikael was using a K2600 with the ROM for most live Wilco gigs (around the time of YHF and most of the AGIB tours) prior to his acquiring or adopting the Nord Electro/Stage (which he seems to use these days).

 

Wurlies and Rhodes... apples and oranges. Both are good at what they are.

[chowdahead]

i always wanted a rhodes and ended up by pure stroke of luck with a wurly. i would say that i prefer the wurlitzer now after having been able to play both. the 200 A wurlitzer is lighter to haul around than any rhodes and requires less tuning. the downside is that unless it's in showroom condition it's probably very noisy when played through an external amp. if you have the time and money and technical knowledge (or like me, know someone who does) you can fix this easily.

[BigWheeledWagon]

I agree that comparing these two classics is indeed an apples/oranges comparison. For the most part, the two aren't interchangeable, and I always tend to know exactly which one a song demands. I love them both.

 

Since I only use keyboards for recording and don't play live, I've found that some of the computer emulators out there are pretty darn good -- I use a couple of programs from Native Instruments run through Sonar. I'm able to get pretty good Wurlitzer and Rhodes sounds. I can also get a nice Hammond organ sound. It's been a lot cheaper than trying to find vintage gear and takes up a lot less space. With guitars, I'm pretty strictly an analog, classic tube guy, but with the keyboard sounds, I don't mind faking it as much. I'm not primarily a keys player, though. I do, however, enjoy the variety of keyboard/synth sounds my computer setup allows me.

[jff]

I like both. I used to have a Wurli and now I'm keeping a Rhodes at my house for a friend.

 

One downside to the Wurli is that the reeds that are struck to produce each note are fairly fragile and it's apparently a laborious process to tune the replacement reeds (it involves whittling away at a little mound of solder at the end of the reed, and adding solder if you whittled away too much). I understand it's getting tougher to find replacement reeds for Wurlitzers. They're not something you can get at Guitar Center or a typical mom and pop music store.

 

Rhodes seem to have much more durable tone producing components and are much less likely to fail as a result of heavy handed playing.

[cryptique]

One downside to the Wurli is that the reeds that are struck to produce each note are fairly fragile and it's apparently a laborious process to tune the replacement reeds (it involves whittling away at a little mound of solder at the end of the reed, and adding solder if you whittled away too much). I understand it's getting tougher to find replacement reeds for Wurlitzers. They're not something you can get at Guitar Center or a typical mom and pop music store.

Are these reeds similar to the ones on the Hohner Pianet T?

 

A friend and I bought an old Pianet T years ago and have long planned to replace its reeds, but have never followed through. I contacted a guy at Hohner once and made inquiries about replacement reeds, but we never got as far as talking about the replacement and tuning processes.

[jff]

Are these reeds similar to the ones on the Hohner Pianet T?

 

A friend and I bought an old Pianet T years ago and have long planned to replace its reeds, but have never followed through. I contacted a guy at Hohner once and made inquiries about replacement reeds, but we never got as far as talking about the replacement and tuning processes.

 

I suspect they aren't the same. I used to read the Wurlitzer Yahoo Group for a while and I don't recall reading anything about the Pianet reeds. It could be a well kept secret, though.

 

Replacement reeds are still being made...or were a few years ago. They supposedly don't sound quite the same, though. NOS reeds are out there, but the last time I checked (two or three years ago) they were selling for $20 for each reed. It'd cost a fortune to redo an entire instrument. The good thing is that the reeds on the really low and really high notes are less likely to need replacement since that range gets less playing time. It's just the mid range of the keyboard that wears out.