Talk:Wurlitzer electronic piano

Sound production
I disagree that the Wurlitzer is brighter, more hollow, and clearer (more vibraphone-like) than the Rhodes; to me, the opposite is true. I hear the Wurlitzer as more guitar-like, blending in with the music and being darker. What is the general consensus here?

I would say that a Rhodes is more bell-like during normal use but a lightly-played Wurlitzer actually has a "sweeter" tone. With average playing, the Rhodes has a murkier, darker tone than a Wurlitzer played in the same way - the Wurly simply cuts through better. Played hard, of course, the Rhodes has the edge - with a Wurly you'll just damage the reeds!

Simon Beck 

Regarding the "difference between the electric and electronic pianos", I think that this is untrue - the earliest 1950s literature refers to the instrument as an "electronic piano", and the phrase "electric piano", while technically more accurate, was never actually used by the Wurlitzer company.

Of course, if you can prove otherwise...

Simon Beck 

"Chicago" doesn't use a Wurlitzer; it's a Vibraphone.

In a video it looked kinda like a rhodes, but I'm no expert. It's definitely not a wurly (though I can't tell by sound in this case)

Dhani Harrison
On Brainwashed, "Stuck Inside a Cloud" he plays a Rhodes, check the album booklet —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.47.121.97 (talk) 05:34, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Title
Could we change the title of this page to "Wurlitzer Electronic Piano", with a redirect from "Wurlitzer electric piano"? The former is the proper name of the instrument from the manufacturer, while the latter is what most people think it is. Any thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ritchie333 (talk • contribs) 09:47, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

While I agree in principle that the manufacturer's trademark should have precedence over the common term, I should also point out:


 * retrospectively the phrase "Wurlitzer electric piano" is a more accurate description of the instrument


 * In 30 years of playing keyboards I have never heard anyone call it anything other than a "Wurlitzer electric piano"


 * The phrase "Wurlitzer Electronic Piano" is potentially misleading; it implies that the instrument is an electronic rather than an electric piano.


 * The instrument has been out of production for 25 years, and the trademark is seldom used.

Simon Beck London, UK —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.74.194.123 (talk) 12:45, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

What are Wikipedia's principles on this? Anyone know?

Admittedly, the first time I ever heard of the Wurlitzer being an "Electronic Piano" (which it isn't) was when I bought one and saw it on the front. I've checked the manual of my Nord Electro (which emulates it) to see what it refers to, but it only mentions "Wurlitzer 200A".

--Ritchie333 15:46, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Removed suspected sales link
I have removed the URL www.ep-service.nl from the References section for the following reasons:


 * References were not cited; the site URL was just placed in the references section
 * In my opinion it is not a knowledge base site.

I suspect it's just an advertisement link. If anyone disagrees with me then I will gladly rectify my change.

Cheers

Adamd1008 (talk) 17:56, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Recorded Examples
The sample of an "Emulated Wurlitzer" from a Nord is not really appropriate for an article on a Wurlitzer, any more than a picture of a plastic squid belongs in an article on a squid. How about a sample of a real one? Sojambi Pinola (talk) 17:08, 21 June 2014 (UTC)
 * I sold my real Wurlitzer years ago before my kids were old enough to break it. I did play it on an album, but I haven't got any sample recordings of it on its own, so the NS2 is the only free audio file I can get. Its "good enough" for the casual reader, and it's got the proper licence. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont)  21:29, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * This article is still using a "Wurlitzer emulation" that sounds VERY little like a Wurlitzer. Sojambi Pinola (talk) 18:25, 3 January 2022 (UTC)
 * fixed. Next time, say "please". Ritchie333 (talk) (cont)  13:06, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

Styx - "Lady" was written on a wurlitzer, but is not played on a wurlitzer in the recordings. The wiki article even says it was played on piano for the recording (but links to a dead site).

Cleanup
See Musical Museum, Kew Bridge Road, London. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.149.226.202 (talk) 18:25, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

I've had a go at cleaning up this article, as it was totally unsourced. I've got one book that has a few paragraphs on the Wurlitzer, but the main prose in the article is still largely lacking references, so I can't tell whether or not it's original research by somebody who's seen a lot of Wurlies drawing their own conclusions. The "Recorded Examples" list is, IMHO too long, and seems to be an attempt to list everything the Wurly was ever heard on. I'd rather trim this down to examples eg: Supertramp, You're My Best Friend - stuff that actually have chance of being reliably sourced. If you disagree, shout, or I'll boldly run off and do it. -- Ritchie333 (talk)  (cont)   21:20, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

Oh, come on...the only audio example on the page is a Nord 2?

It would appear that someone went nuts deleting the audio references. . . I personally would love to see some of these restored so that I can delve into my music collection and listen to some songs featuring the Wurly. I suppose I can go into the article history and resurrect some of these, but I think someone else may be more qualified to pick which of the original list are most representative of the instrument. Mikerrr (talk) 21:59, 7 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Somebody "went nuts" deleting the previous audio because they were copyright violations. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont)  10:39, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Dating the change from 200 to 200A amps: 1972? or 1974?
I can find no evidence, other than repeated heresay, that the 200A replaced the 200 before 1974. I am starting to suspect that the date of 1972 is wrong, and its repeated mention on Wikipedia and elsewhere is causing a circular pattern of misinformation. The earliest dated schematic for the 200A series, that I can find, is from October 15, 1974. People may be confused by old parts stuck in later machines. I'm happy to be proven wrong, though. Sojambi Pinola (talk) 19:31, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

massive list of users & uses
is this really necessary? I mean, one instance of a use by eddie van halen? it's fascinating, but...

& it amused me greatly to see don fagen's name down twice.

duncanrmi (talk) 12:51, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

The Beatles' use of the Wurlitzer
AFAIK, The Beatles didn't really use the Wurlitzer and were better known for the Hohner Pianet and Rhodes piano. Could someone please explain the addition of "The Beatles" to this article?--71.200.123.192 (talk) 01:37, 10 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Yes, The Beatles' use of the Hohner and Rhodes is well documented, but I don't think that they never used a Wurlitzer, as Nicky Hopkins often did, so maybe they used one on Revolution? But you're right about the Hohner and the Rhodes. Thank you for the removal of Come Together and Let It Be because they pretty much moved away from all other electric pianos in favor of the Rhodes beginning with Get Back and Don't Let Me Down which were recorded in January 1969.--71.200.109.219 (talk) 00:12, 2 June 2017 (UTC)


 * I'm pretty sure the only Wurlitzer electric piano on a Beatles track is "I Me Mine" from 1970. "Revolution" single is a Hohner EP.  Sojambi Pinola (talk)

Notable players

 * Roger Hodgson
 * Rick Davies
 * Jeff Lynne
 * Elton John
 * Brian Wilson
 * Carl Wilson
 * Dennis Wilson
 * Bruce Johnston
 * Billy Joel
 * Ray Charles
 * Ray Manzarek
 * Vanessa Carlton
 * Sheryl Crow
 * Alicia Keys
 * John Legend
 * Richard Carpenter
 * Gary Wright
 * Rick Wright
 * Richard Tandy
 * Benmont Tench
 * KT Tunstall
 * Glenn Frey
 * Joe Walsh
 * John Fogerty
 * Kenneth Ascher
 * John Lennon
 * Paul McCartney
 * Linda McCartney
 * Billy Preston
 * Mike Mills
 * Bill Berry
 * Tori Amos
 * Eric Bazilian
 * Rob Hyman
 * Bono
 * The Edge
 * Danger Mouse
 * Beck
 * Robert Lamm
 * John Deacon
 * Paul Davis
 * Mick Gallagher
 * David Bryan
 * Nicky Hopkins
 * Ian Stewart
 * Rami Jaffee
 * Ralph Schuckett
 * Joe Hunter
 * Earl Van Dyke
 * Johnny Griffith
 * Christine McVie
 * Norah Jones
 * Sun Ra
 * Joe Zawinul
 * Paul Rodgers
 * Dennis DeYoung
 * Donny Hathaway
 * Avery Sunshine
 * Ian McLagan
 * Graham Nash
 * Stephen Stills
 * Neil Young
 * Michael Omartian
 * Larry Knechtel
 * Leon Russell
 * Booker T. Jones
 * Garth Porter
 * Grace Potter
 * Bill Payne
 * John Medeski
 * Eddie Van Halen
 * Jimmy Greenspoon
 * Donald Fagen
 * Paul Griffin
 * Don Grolnick
 * Barry Beckett
 * Spooner Oldham
 * Garth Hudson
 * Richard Manuel

Recorded examples

 * Sun Ra &mdash; the first musician to record with Wurlitzer electric piano for his 1956 recording "Angels and Demons at Play"
 * Ray Charles &mdash; "What'd I Say"
 * Faces &mdash; "Stay with Me", "Three Button Hand-Me-Down", "Bad 'n' Ruin", "Debris", "Miss Judy's Farm", "Maybe I'm Amazed"
 * Small Faces &mdash; "Lazy Sunday"
 * Helen Reddy &mdash; "Angie Baby"
 * Supertramp &mdash; "Dreamer", "The Logical Song", "Goodbye Stranger", "Bloody Well Right", "Forever" and many others
 * Queen &mdash; "You're My Best Friend"
 * Four Tops &mdash; "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)", "It's the Same Old Song", "Reach Out I'll Be There"
 * Alicia Keys &mdash; "Go Ahead", "I Need You"
 * Pink Floyd &mdash; "Time", "Money", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Part 8) and "Have a Cigar"
 * Van Halen &mdash; "And the Cradle Will Rock..."
 * American Football &mdash; "The One With the Wurlitzer"; the song features a Wurlitzer track, which also inspired the song's name.
 * Neil Diamond &mdash; "Song Sung Blue"
 * Chicago &mdash; "Poem 58"
 * The Rolling Stones &mdash; "Miss You", "Emotional Rescue"
 * Billy Joel &mdash; "Los Angelenos", "Worse Comes to Worst", "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
 * Elton John &mdash; "Take Me Back"
 * Marvin Gaye &mdash; "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "That's the Way Love Is"
 * The Temptations &mdash; "Runaway Child, Running Wild"
 * Little Feat &mdash; "Spanish Moon", "Romance Dance", "All That You Dream"
 * Paul Simon &mdash; "Congratulations", "Kodachrome", "Take Me to the Mardi Gras"
 * Loggins and Messina &mdash; "You Need a Man", "Watching the River Run", "Thinking of You"
 * The Carpenters &mdash; "Reason to Believe", "Superstar", "Top of the World", "Rainy Days and Mondays", "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)", "Yesterday Once More", "We've Only Just Begun", "(They Long to Be) Close to You", "Ticket to Ride", "Bacharach/David Medley"
 * Three Dog Night &mdash; "Mama Told Me Not to Come", "One", "Joy to the World"
 * The Beatles &mdash; "Revolution", "Let It Be"
 * Carole King &mdash; "Smackwater Jack"
 * Sixto Rodriguez &mdash; "Climb Up on My Music", "Heikki's Suburbia Bus Tour", "Halfway Up the Stairs"
 * The Supremes &mdash; "Stop! In the Name of Love", "I Hear a Symphony", "Reflections"
 * Leo Sayer &mdash; "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing"
 * Eagles &mdash; "Outlaw Man"
 * Electric Light Orchestra &mdash; "Strange Magic"
 * John Lennon &mdash; "How Do You Sleep?", "Going Down on Love"
 * The Move &mdash; "Message from the Country", "The Words of Aaron"
 * King Harvest &mdash; "Dancing in the Moonlight"
 * Orleans &mdash; "Still the One"
 * Creedence Clearwater Revival &mdash; "The Midnight Special", "Someday Never Comes", "Lookin' Out My Back Door"
 * Booker T. & the M.G.'s &mdash; "My Sweet Potato", "Chinese Checkers"
 * Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young &mdash; "Country Girl"
 * Martha and the Vandellas &mdash; "Come and Get These Memories", "Heat Wave", "Nowhere to Run"
 * The Beach Boys &mdash; "Help Me, Rhonda", "In the Back of My Mind"
 * Aretha Franklin &mdash; "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)"
 * Bill Withers &mdash; "Lean on Me"
 * Steely Dan &mdash; "Do It Again", "Dallas"
 * The Band &mdash; "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)", "Life Is a Carnival", "Time to Kill"
 * The Doors &mdash; "Queen of the Highway", "Crawling King Snake"
 * R.E.M. &mdash; "Everybody Hurts"
 * Sheryl Crow &mdash; "All I Wanna Do"
 * Tom Petty &mdash; "You Don't Know How It Feels"
 * Beck &mdash; "Where It's At"
 * The Wallflowers &mdash; "One Headlight", "6th Avenue Heartache"
 * Bon Jovi &mdash; "Say It Isn't So", "Misunderstood", "Who Says You Can't Go Home", "What Do You Got?"
 * Norah Jones &mdash; "Feelin' the Same Way"
 * Joan Osborne &mdash; "One of Us"
 * KT Tunstall &mdash; "Other Side of the World"
 * Grace Potter and the Nocturnals &mdash; "Treat Me Right"
 * Daft Punk &mdash; "Digital Love"
 * Tori Amos &mdash; "Taxi Ride"
 * U2 &mdash; "Ordinary Love"

This list is getting to be WP:INDISCRIMINATE and there's been a lot of addition of unsourced or poorly sourced content. Much like we've got seperate articles for Hammond organ/List of Hammond organ players and Moog synthesizer/List of Moog synthesizer players and, looking at the page history for the Rhodes piano article, I couldn't help but notice an edit summary by that said "take it to List of Rhodes piano players" (and no harm intended Ritchie, but it seems odd that you should direct someone to a red link, unless maybe you're proposing a separate article, which is understandable) and so, based on a precedent of such splits, I see no reason why we can't have a separate article for List of Wurlitzer electric piano players. Some thoughts and opinions from music participants would be helpful.--Kevjgav (talk) 16:36, 1 December 2017 (UTC)


 * It's long been my intention to clean up this article using the collection of book sources I have, exactly as I did for Rhodes Piano. AFAIK, the summary re: List of Rhodes piano players did imply it should be created, in the same manner as List of Hammond organ players (and, in turn, List of Hammond organs). It helps stop arguments about who should and shouldn't appear in a "notable users" section of an instrument article, and means people don't get upset when their favourite artist gets deleted because it's too much off-topic. Ritchie333 <sup style="color:#7F007F">(talk) <sup style="color:#7F007F">(cont)  16:40, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

"Notable users" section is inaccurate
"the first documented commercial recording using the Wurlitzer was two years earlier, Steve Allen's "Electrified Favorites" of 1958, prominently featuring the new keyboard (Coral 57185)."

I am not sure what the source is for that statement, but it is misleading. Two earlier recordings have come to mind:

Duke Ellington recorded on a Wurlitzer (probably a 110) on May 18 and 19, 1955, for Capitol Records, at Universal Studios in Chicago. One of the tracks was "Coquette." This is a very obscure session, and I’m not sure any of the Wurlitzer tracks were released until later. Even if that is the case, and if we are talking about the first _released_ recording, Sun Ra still beats Steve Allen:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110713115556/http://homepage.uab.edu/moudry/disc_h.htm
 * Sun Ra's pertinent Wurlitzer single collected on "Angels and Demons at Play" was recorded in February 1956, and first released in 1956, regardless of its later compilation on a 1960 LP. The crucial track is "Medicine for a Nightmare."


 * Sun Ra's album "Super Sonic Jazz" was recorded in 1956-1957, and released in 1957. It contains extensive Wurlitzer on "India", "Advice to Medics", "Springtime in Chicago," "Sunology" pts 1 and 2, and a different take of "Medicine for a Nightmare."  This was arguable not as "commercial" or corporate a release as Steve Allen's, but it was still sold and commercially available in 1957.

Let's update the article! Sojambi Pinola (talk) 21:07, 12 May 2020 (UTC)

missing extended data on the gps2000 baby grand model
Need to add baby grand gps2000 data to spec and charts. Nothing higher than 200s listed. I need a full set of data for them. I am being given one needing fixed. 2603:6010:CE06:284A:A420:5514:8209:51E4 (talk) 14:58, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

Clones
@Ritchie333 could you please explain why you reverted my edit here https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wurlitzer_electronic_piano&oldid=1193942101

Your edit summary is "nothing to do with the Wurlitzer". Can you explain what do you mean? Thanks

Mastazi (talk) 14:11, 6 January 2024 (UTC)


 * I moved it to Electric piano. It's not specifically related to the Wurlitzer, but to electric pianos generally. <b style="color:#7F007F">Ritchie333</b> <sup style="color:#7F007F">(talk) <sup style="color:#7F007F">(cont)  14:23, 6 January 2024 (UTC)
 * OK, thank you for explaining, thinking about it, I agree that it's better to have it in Electric Piano Mastazi (talk) 11:50, 7 January 2024 (UTC)