Campbell tells me that Sun Ra had bought his Wurlitzer by his October 1955 stint at the Grand Terrace Ballroom, and used it there. (There also exists an unreleased 1955 acetate from him on the instrument.)ĭiscographer Robert L. While Duke Ellington may have been the first to recording on a Wurlitzer Electronic Piano, jazz pianist-composer-bandleader-Saturnite Sun Ra was probably the first musician to have commercially released recordings with the instrument, including an early 1956 studio session or two. (nor does any other Wurlitzer Electric Piano.) There is also mention that it has been “market tested.” Does that mean that the 110 was already out in the world? In spite of this article, which claims that adjusting the bass and treble can make the 110 sounds like a variety of instruments, its amp has no built-in “tone” (eq) control. In both known instruments I know of, original hammer felts are a distinctive deep purple.Ī March 1955 article by Kay Sherwood claims it will be available by “late spring,” and similar articles appear through May in papers in various targeted local markets. (A transistorized solid state amp was an option starting in 1962 evidence suggests the last Wurlitzer tube amps were phased out at some point in 1965.) As with all Wurlitzer Electronic Pianos produced in the 1950’s, this had a tube amp a photo of this can be seen on the Model 111 page, as the same amp was retained for that model. This look was retained for the briefly-produced 111. This model was described as having a “Brown pebble-textured finish” (Owosso Argus Press, June 28, 1955) and a “Pebblelac finish” (Manual, p.
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Although, unlike an organ or a synthesizer, the instrument didn’t have a variety of voices, its one sound was always capable of dynamics and musical expressiveness. The sound evolved over the decades, but was always intrinsically similar in character, somewhere between “barking” and bell-like. This length-scaling of the reeds was always exactly the same, even as width, thickness and shape/taper of the reeds changed. The tones were always produced by a miniaturized piano action, including felt hammers hitting, not strings, but small, tone-producing, tuned spring-steel “reeds,” of successively shorter length, that vibrated in an electrostatic pickup. The piano almost always consisted of 64 notes, skipping the top and bottom octaves of a standard piano.
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It was an electro-acoustic, amplified instrument that required a speaker or headphones to be heard above a whisper. But certain basic concepts were constant, and present in this very first distributed model. Over the next 33 years, the “Wurlitzer Electronic Piano” would go through any number of radical design changes. Piano sits on a table with wrought-iron legs. The lead treble sustain brick of later 1950s models is not found here, though other smaller weights are attached at various spots. The handle is also on the back, so the keys point down when carried as a suitcase.” An “auxiliary pedal” mentioned only in action-removing instructions of manual, is seemingly an afterthought (p.8) Some pix, not all, showing a right-side hole where it would go. “The 110 slides out of the case for servicing, as the top is fixed.
#Wurlitzer organ 4060 manual
If this link is working, it is a compilation from that historic session:Ī manual exists, slightly less rare than the keyboard, as they continued using it, inappropriately, for the 111. By 1964, Ellington appeared in an ad promoting Wurlitzer standard pianos, and the the company may have encouraged this earlier session prior to the instruments being available on the general market. Whether he bought it, was gifted or lent it, or whether it resided at the studio, is unknown.
![wurlitzer organ 4060 wurlitzer organ 4060](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JjEAAOSwHu5b8GeV/s-l300.jpg)
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Tracks included “Coquette”, “Discontented Blues”, “Once In A Blue Mood”, “Lady Be Good,” and “So Long.” (The session can be found in its entirety on the out-of-print Mosiac collection “Complete Capitol Recordings Of Duke Ellington”, and boy would I love a copy.) I presume this was a 110. This is the earliest recording session featuring a Wurlitzer that I have been able to find. Given that Fred has supplied me with evidence of a Model 111 sold on July 25, 1955, I suspect that the 110’s and 111’s were sent to stores at roughly the same time.ĭuke Ellington and his jazz orchestra recorded on a Wurlitzer Electric Piano on May 18 and 19, 1955, for Capitol Records, at Universal Studios in Chicago (a very obscure session, and I’m not sure the Wurlitzer tracks were released at the time). At least one has the date stamp “1254” on the side of the lowest key, which we interpret to mean “December 1954.” As described further down the page, I have reason to believe that no Wurlitzer was sold in a store prior to June 1955 - at the very least, I can find no advertising for them prior to that date. In color, above: A Model 110 restored by Fred DiLione and Jonathan Gusoff (original link here).