One of the most idiosyncratic aspects of the Wurlitzer’s design is its bizarrely counter-intuitive tuning method. I would just pick a Wurlitzer for anything that I was recording." I feel like there’s a sterility to the Rhodes. The action to me is better on a Wurlitzer. I’ve played both Rhodes and Wurlitzer pianos. "It feels less expressive to me as a player. "The Rhodes to me feels like a less sensitive instrument," he says. Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Peter Holsapple is best-known as co-frontman for The dB’s and auxiliary member of R.E.M. There’s something about the hammers hitting those pieces of spring steel that causes an expressive range I’ve never been able to get out of a Rhodes." It’s less pretty than a Rhodes there’s a bit more grit to it.
"You can really do a lot in terms of the hammers coming up and hitting the reeds. "The Wurlitzer has a much more sophisticated action ," says Espinola. Photo by Miles Gear Bazaar.Īs proprietor of Doc Wurly, keyboardist Steve Espinola is New York’s only exclusive specialist in Wurlitzer electric piano restoration and repair. The sound of an electric piano, rather, is basically produced by a hammer hitting a metal reed or tine, which is amplified by a pickup system similar in concept to the ones used in electric guitars. The company already had a successful history as makers of organs and acoustic pianos when they branched out with what they marketed as an "electronic piano." However, the piano's sound isn't actually produced electronically in the same way we think of other electronic instruments. It’s all part of a legacy that began when the first model 100 came off the line in Wurlitzer’s North Tonawanda HQ in upstate New York. Musicians who weren’t even born before the Wurly ceased production are eager to emulate the raw, sexy sound Ray Charles achieved on "What’d I Say," or the sub-zero cool of Benmont Tench’s low-riding riffs on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ "Breakdown." Behind the Sound Today, Wurlitzers are increasingly thin on the ground, as demand rises and stock dwindles. It was only in production from 1954 through 1984, but in that relatively brief window of time, it made an impact that’s still being felt decades after the last unit left the factory. Where the Rhodes has a clean, smooth sound that made it ubiquitous in pop and jazz, the Wurly was always the rocker, with a dirty, organic vibe providing just the right amount of soulful grit. The Rhodes piano, created in its earliest form by Harold Rhodes in the 1940s and put into wide production by Fender in the '60s and '70s, has always been the most popular electric piano, but the Wurlitzer is the perennial underdog-the electric axe of choice for discerning keyboardists with a penchant for the rougher end of the sonic spectrum.
What elusive creature is seldom seen in the wild but has both the bark and bite of a feral beast? Forget your werewolf and Bigfoot, we’re talking about the Wurlitzer electric piano.