Wurlitzer 200A update… Dismantled

I finally got to spend some time last night working on the Wurlitzer. This keyboard needs a ‘frame up’ restoration, much like they mention with old cars. Completely dismantling it, seeing what needs restoration, restoring all the parts, reassembly. Considering the conditions this keyboard has lived in during its existance, it’s surprising it still fired …

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Yamaha SK50D – Leslie Speaker Controls

Yamaha SK50D synthesizers have a Leslie speaker output on the back to work with 2-channel Leslie speakers, like the 815, 715, HL-722, HL-822 and HL-422 and 415 models. They’re the last generation of the older 11-pin connector Leslie speaker company. The SK50D also has controls for both manuals so you can select which keyboards and …

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Tools For 8 Bit Music – Dec. 11, 2011 – THEMUSEUM

December 11th, 1pm to 3:30pm Come learn how to make video game music with four 8 bit music tool demonstrations on four platforms – Gameboy trackers, Vic20 MIDI, Petsynth, MSSIAH for Commodore 64. The world of 8 bit music is growing internationally, spawned by the love for old video game consoles and home computers of …

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Wurlitzer 200A update – It powered up!

I purchased a original 200A power cord (flat oval at the keyboard, non-standard design) on eBay and brought that to KWARTZLAB tonight to see if we could get the old machine to fire up. Eureka! The power/volume pot seems to be a little dirty, but after a few tweaks of the knob, the power light …

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Wurlizter 200A Update – 2011-11-08

First day of work, cleaning up the case and the key surfaces. The whole keyboard will need to be pulled apart and put back together, so I thought I’d cover the easy outside stuff first. Tools? Toothbrush, paintbrush, Windex, damp and dry microfibre clothes. Cleaned her up on the outside. So much to do inside. …

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Wurlitzer 200A update… DismantledYamaha SK50D – Leslie Speaker ControlsTools For 8 Bit Music – Dec. 11, 2011 – THEMUSEUMWurlitzer 200A update – It powered up!Wurlizter 200A Update – 2011-11-08

Jan
06
2012

Wurlitzer 200A update… Dismantled

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I finally got to spend some time last night working on the Wurlitzer. This keyboard needs a ‘frame up’ restoration, much like they mention with old cars. Completely dismantling it, seeing what needs restoration, restoring all the parts, reassembly.

Considering the conditions this keyboard has lived in during its existance, it’s surprising it still fired up and worked.
Aside from one part of the keyboard, it’s been dismantled into all major part areas, parts bagged and marked.
What did I find? Money, a key, a lot of dirt, cob webs, water damage, a little bit of mold.

The good? All rubber and felt appear to be in tact and in good condition! The reeds/tines were also all there and in reasonable condition (some a little rusty from water).
The bad? All aluminum has oxidized from water contamination and humidity. This will require a lot of buffing out and polishing.
Next step? Cleaning and repainting the base plate (satin black).

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Dec
27
2011

Yamaha SK50D – Leslie Speaker Controls

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Yamaha SK50D synthesizers have a Leslie speaker output on the back to work with 2-channel Leslie speakers, like the 815, 715, HL-722, HL-822 and HL-422 and 415 models. They’re the last generation of the older 11-pin connector Leslie speaker company. The SK50D also has controls for both manuals so you can select which keyboards and sounds will use the leslie channel. This video gives and overview and demo of this function.

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Nov
24
2011

Tools For 8 Bit Music – Dec. 11, 2011 – THEMUSEUM

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December 11th, 1pm to 3:30pm

Come learn how to make video game music with four 8 bit music tool demonstrations on four platforms – Gameboy trackers, Vic20 MIDI, Petsynth, MSSIAH for Commodore 64. The world of 8 bit music is growing internationally, spawned by the love for old video game consoles and home computers of the 80′s and 90′s. What is supporting this movement is a growing number of music tools for the popular platforms. These demonstrations will cover some of the tools available and in development.

Instructors:
Jake Moolenbeek (DEADBEATBLAST) www.deadbeatblast.com
Leif Bloomquist www.leifbloomquist.net
Rob Adlers www.auralplane.com
Chiron Bramberger www.petsynth.org

Where:
THEMUSEUM – Kitchener, ON, Canada
www.themuseum.ca
Admission is the price of entry to the museum for the RAM exhibit.

Jake Moolenbeek
Subject: Video presentation on basics of tracking, old hardware/brief computer sound history etc.

Bio:
DEADBEATBLAST is a low tech, high energy audio/visual act from Ontario, Canada. A composer and visualist who’s work focuses on the generation imagery and sound using limited technologies. Re-purposed GameBoys and old computers are pushed to their limits to create heavy music and chaotic visuals. His music has been featured on many websites and internet charts, with dozens of performances over the last 3 years.

His lecture will explore chiptune and demo scene music, and some of the respective hardware that is used in it’s creation.

www.deadbeatblast.com

Leif Bloomquist
Subject: A new MIDI Interface for the Commodore VIC20 computer (1981).

Bio:
Leif Bloomquist has always been fascinated by the potential of electronic and computer-generated sounds and music. Classically trained in clarinet and percussion, he now composes using sequencing software while incorporating eclectic and home-built hardware.

His material can be heard in such diverse environments as on CBC Radio 3, ambient music festivals, gothic nightclubs, and churches. Leif is a founding member of the Independent Electronic Musicians Collective, and has released
five albums to date through his Schema Factor and Interweaver projects.

This presentation covers the motivation and history behind the history of the VICMIDI device, with technical details on its implementation and a demonstration piece.

www.leifbloomquist.net

Rob Adlers
Subject: Commodore 64 MSSIAH (with MIDI) Cartridge

Bio:
Rob Adlers (Auraplane) has had a fascination with electronic music and computers since an early age. Rob has performed and written pieces for many different genres, but has always had a love for electronic based music. A pilgrimage occurred in the mid-90′s to better understand the history behind electronic music and the sounds he was using. This led to web mastering for www.hughlecaine.com, and a dip back into keyboard history to the pipe organ age. This evolved into
the ORGANic Evolution series in Toronto (www.organicevolution.net). The side hobby that came from this exploration was repairing and restoring old keyboard instruments.

You can find Rob’s videos and music on Youtube, Reverbnation, CBC Radio 3.

www.auralplane.com

Chiron Bramberger
Subject: A demonstration of the original, and the latest version, of
Chiron’s PetSynth software for the Commodore PET computer (circa
1977-1984).

Bio:
Chiron Bramberger has a great affection for vintage computers, computer history, and music. After searching the software landscape for a music program for the Commodore PET, and found none that met his needs, he decided to create his own software. This program, PetSynth, allows the playing of the Commodore PET like a musical instrument. Chiron is currently working on a short animated film that incorporates music created using PetSynth, as well as other vintage computers and video games.

www.petsynth.org

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Nov
23
2011

Wurlitzer 200A update – It powered up!

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I purchased a original 200A power cord (flat oval at the keyboard, non-standard design) on eBay and brought that to KWARTZLAB tonight to see if we could get the old machine to fire up.
Eureka! The power/volume pot seems to be a little dirty, but after a few tweaks of the knob, the power light came on and I heard amplification!
End result, the amplifier circuit and vibrato circuit are working just fine. All the keys will need to be loosened up, cleaned, etc. But all notes appear to be working (although a few sounds not so healthy), and the sound from the speakers is oh so sweet.

Now to buy baggies from the dollar store to put the various screws, nuts and small parts in when I begin to take the machine apart over the winter.

Next step, purchase hammer action repair kit and some other parts and start dismantling the keyboard down to the base plate.

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Nov
09
2011

Wurlizter 200A Update – 2011-11-08

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First day of work, cleaning up the case and the key surfaces. The whole keyboard will need to be pulled apart and put back together, so I thought I’d cover the easy outside stuff first.
Tools? Toothbrush, paintbrush, Windex, damp and dry microfibre clothes. Cleaned her up on the outside. So much to do inside.

I found the appropriate power cord on Ebay, so that’s been ordered so I can see if it actually works still from an electronics standpoint.

Majority of these pictures are by Karl Williams.








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Oct
24
2011

Restoring a Wurlitzer 200A Electric Piano – Picking it up

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I have my next restoration project for the winter. My cottage neighbours brought me into their house this summer to show me what they had acquired from friends. Coolness is that they acquired. A Wurlitzer 200A Electric piano (1970′s). It’s in rough shape at the moment. It’s been sitting in a shed for who knows how long. All the tines still can be heard, so that’s an amazing start. The keys stick, everything’s dirty, no power cord. It needs some loving. The front panel and knobs are actually not missing. They were in a bag on the floor in the car. The only two pieces missing from this unit are the power cord and the music stand on top. If I can find them, great, but I have a feeling the power cord will be getting updated to a current plug design (computer power cord config).

More information about these can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wurlitzer_electric_piano


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Oct
22
2011

Restoring a Shaw Shavian Opus 22 Organ

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There’s such a cool history behind this story, I think I should start with that. A.N. Shaw Organ company resided in Burlington, ON for many years. The business and phone numbers still show up on the web but the last time I tried to contact them, it didn’t appear as though they were in business anymore. This particular organ was made in 1970 and resided in a church in Burlington until congregations changed and the new congregation wanted to get rid of this organ. It was posted for free on Kijiji. Sad that they did not know about the background on this man and his work.

Quick Link for you:

The Shaw Organ

There are a couple of videos on YouTube as well that play recordings from these awesome instruments. If you look at the below pictures, you’ll see how well organized and simple they were designed (OK, that’s relative I realize). Each note in an octave had it’s own oscillator board that you could pull out/plug in for servicing. Even cooler is they were individually tunable, so you could set up your own scaling! Then there were circuits to filter the sounds and voltage doublers/halfers for different octaves on the keyboard. Easily maintained and probably will last for many years to come. Where Shaw’s electronic organs stood out was the splitting of the ranks into multiple speakers as outlined in the link above. This particular organ split into four speakers, and yes, there definitely was more clarity when mixing ranks and playing out. This predates all the new virtual organ configurations that exist on the market today. No patent for this, but Shaw definitely pioneered the split rank speaker systems for electronic church organs.

Since the organ was installed in the church, the speakers didn’t have backs to them, which I had to fabricate along with speaker wire connectors because the original wiring was hardwired inside the organ. The footpedal wiring was also hardwired inside the console under the floor, so the construction guys had cut the wiring… all 75 wires… Insert my groan here, but they really didn’t have much of a choice. I got a D connector with 100 pins on it and began a long painful process of mapping all the wiring and soldering them to the male and female sides of the connectors. This took the better part of two weeks in the evenings on the living room floor because the wiring was short.

Finally I needed to create a wiring box inside the organ for the speaker wire to connect to (not to deface the backside of the organ), and a power cable because the original one was cut. Other than that, I cleaned up and straightened the foot pedal contacts and the rest of the organ and it was good to go. I resold it to an organist who set it up in the livingroom with all four speakers around the organ. Quadra-sound!














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Oct
22
2011

Restoring a Yamaha SK15

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I was in Washington, D.C. visiting my cousin and her husband. Her husband and I went to his band practice to hack around. During practice, I noticed a familiar set of keys lurking under a pile of old newspapers on the floor. I pulled it out to find a Yamaha SK15. I’d been looking for a parts machine for my SK50D for some time in case anything went wrong. This looked pretty abused, so I purchased it from the fellow who owned it. Let’s just say I horribly overpaid. I should have inspected it MUCH more before buying it. I think I would have offered him $20 for it instead of what I paid.

I took it home and hooked it up. For the most part it worked, but all the sliders and switches had definitely been corroded or dirty for some time. The machine looked like it had been soaked in water as well. OK, surprisingly it still worked minus a few switches. Good for parts. Here’s a picture of it on the top of my A-Frame in the studio.

I took it to KWARTZLAB and opened it up to see what parts it had inside. HORROR!!!! OK, besides the water damage, the parts were incompatible with my SK50D. Word to those with SK50D’s… you need SK20′s and 30′s for parts. I sat there in amazement looking at the inside of this keyboard and wondered how the heck this keyboard still functioned! Yamaha built these things like tanks. That simple.

Out came the cleaning equipment. Scraping, cleaning, spraying the circuit boards with cleaner to get them proper again. For the most part I pulled the keyboard pieces apart, cleaned them and put them back together again.

A few of the switches for the keyboard sections didn’t work anymore, but at this point, I decided this was as far as I’d restore this keyboard. In the end, I sold it at a loss, informed the buyer about the condition and current state. Aside from the few switches that didn’t work to turn off the individual sections of the keyboard output, everything else worked. Since the volume pots for the sections still worked, there was still control over outputs, so all was not lost. Lesson learned – if you see water damage outside, it’s probably worse on the inside. The next question is whether you can fix it. This keyboard was salvageable even it looked horrible under the hood.

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Oct
22
2011

Restoring a Yamaha CS15

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My friend Ken Baird had a Yamaha CS15 sitting around forever collecting dust, mostly because the audio output was wrecked and several keys were broken. It worked alright, but was in sad shape. Thankfully the sliders, pots and keys all still worked as they were supposed to.

The biggest problem… The broken keys! Where to get them? I called Yamaha Canada service. “You know that’s 1977? We don’t have replacement keys for keyboards that far back, sorry.” Fair enough.

One of the folks at the KWARTZLAB mentioned that they had hauled in a discarded Yamaha Electone organ that was going to be stripped for parts for other projects. We wondered if the keys were compatible with this CS15. How lucky was that? They were! I stripped the keys off the organ.

The replacement keys went on beautifully. Next problem… the ruined output jack. I swear the keyboard was dropped on a 1/4″ cable end that was plugged into the back of the keyboard. The case was bent, the circuit board the output jack was mounted to was broken off from the rest of the board. Thankfully that didn’t ruin the functionality of the wiring. Worse yet, the nut the output jack was held on to the case with had been reefed on an angle so hard I had to cut it off with a dremel. The jack was toast.

I replaced the jack, rewired it into the keyboard, hammered out the back panel of the keyboard using a block of wood and a hammer, and remounted the new jack back in.

The keyboard then was blown clean of dust inside and out, cleaned from top to bottom, pots and sliders sprayed with pot lube, and everything reassembled. The keyboard is fully functional once again, and is actually looking quite decent now for its age.

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Oct
22
2011

Restoring a Sequential Circuits Pro 1

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My friend Ken Baird has had this wonderful Sequential Circuits Pro 1 keyboard for many years, and over time, the rubber stops underneath the keys aged, hardened, and in some cases, came off. The result for the keyboard was it had uneven keys, making it a little awkward to play, and it also clicked a lot when playing the keys. Ken purchased replacement rubber stops from California, and we got to cleaning up the keys and the keyboard itself. One other thing I discovered was another fellow had repaired the keyboard for Ken in the past, but had put it back together incorrectly. I had to put on nuts around the 1/4″ jacks out the back of the keyboard to correct that.

Note the corrected keys in the foreground and the original condition ones towards the rear. Kind of like keys that had braces put on and ones that need them!

Ken and I cleaned the whole keyboard inside and out before putting it back together.

Final result, a cleaned up and refreshed keyboard for Ken to use in all future recordings.

To hear some of Ken’s music, check out http://www.kenbairdmusic.com

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