Steve Espinola will tune, repair, and service your Wurlitzer Electric Piano and restore it to full functionality. Most instruments are serviced in his shop, in Prospect Park South, Brooklyn (aka Flatbush). For an additional fee, he will make house calls (and stage calls) in the greater New York City area. He has over 30 years of experience playing and repairing these instruments.
He will tune, voice, and/or replace the faulty reeds in your Wurlitzer Electric Piano. He will also regulate the action so it plays smoothly, and generally restore it to health and a dynamic, expressive musicality. Approximately 40 different models of this electro-acoustic keyboard were produced between 1954 and 1983. All can be serviced at Doc Wurly.
Call Steve to schedule getting your Wurlitzer Electric Piano up to speed: 347-619-2464.
You can also email him at DocWurly@gmail.com, though phone is preferred.
See Steve’s unprecedented online list of every model of Wurlitzer Electronic Piano ever produced, 1954-1983.
See the Testimonials page: Here.
If you have one of these, you know they are among the most expressive and beautiful sounding keyboards on the planet. No two sound alike; they each have personalities, and positive unpredictabilities, which can’t be rendered on even the best sampling/digital keyboards. They can play funky, rocking, sweet and tender, in equal measure.
They can also be also terribly finicky beasts. At best, they have always required skill to maintain. Add to that, the oldest of these are over 67 years of age; the newest were made over 38 years ago. It is a measure of the care that went into their design, and the love that tends to be shown towards them, that they still work at all, after decades of use. That said, much like a vintage car, they tend to require some special attention to undo the entropic forces of time, wear, travel, accident, and occasional outright misuse and abuse.
The hammer and action of each key is very similar to that of a spinet piano, and will slowly, over decades, go “out” from the normal weathering effects of temperature, humidity, gravity, and use. The small, steel tone-producing reeds must be tuned by repeated trial and error, by adding or filing bits of solder off the end of the reed. Eventually, over decades of use, the metal fatigues or snaps on some reeds, and these must be replaced. This can be a more time-consuming process than the tuning of individual piano strings; but the pitch of an individual Wurlitzer EP note should hold far longer, if the process is done correctly, than that of a piano string, due to differences in instrument design. There is nothing like these instruments, and they will more than return the investment you put into them.
At this point, as well, the amplifiers of even the later, best-maintained models are starting to show unwelcome noise and crossover distortion. Some such calls begin with a blown fuse or two that need replacement. Steve can do simpler electronics repairs during an initial house call, and talk you through options if more complex electronic work is required.
Be aware that all 1950s models (110, 111, 112, 112A, 120 and 700) have design features that makes tuning and repairing them more time-consuming, and therefore more expensive. This can also be true of early 1960s, pre-140B models as well, to a lesser degree. They are wonderful when restored, but it is wise to understand what you are investing in before buying one.
347-619-2464
DocWurly@gmail.com
Please note: A Wurlitzer Electronic Piano is not to be confused with a Wurlitzer acoustic piano, A Wurlitzer player piano, A Wurlitzer organ, or a Wurlitzer coin-operated jukebox. It is also not a modern digital sample-based piano. Steve does not repair any of those.
Photo of Steve E. by Michelle Citrin.
