Standard Services

It is a high priority to keep dust debris and objects out of the Wurlitzer. Over time dust debris and small things like broken reeds, guitar picks, cat and dog hair, bugs and anything spilled will settle into the piano’s chassis. This causes many of the noise issues common to Wurlitzer’s. The first thing we do is to remove all of your keys as well as the action and vacuum out the entire piano and reed bar. This is also a great time for inspections of the piano.

A Wurlitzer EP action is made up of wood components; over time and weather conditions the regulation is affected and changes. It is necessary to compensate for these changes by adjusting capstan screws on the whip assembly and the hammer rail to bring the piano back into its best alignment for optimal functionality. The key bed and key height all play into the overall regulation. There is an order to do this that we strictly follow. Our action regulation is highly regarded by our customers.

Wood actions are susceptible to moisture and swell during humid months. This leads to action that becomes sluggish and unresponsive. This can also accumulate over time with dust and micro matter that gets into the bushings. We have a solution that we use to shrink the action, which basically removes the water content from the action centers, freeing up any slow returning parts. it's safe to use and works wonders on actions.

Over time whip, hammer and damper screws become loose causing a noisy and sloppy feeling piano. We tighten all screws and realign assemblies. A simple but overlooked process.

It all starts from a proper key height and level key bed as well as keys that are square to the chassis. This is the difference in how the action feels and responds. We have our own key height that we work with that truly makes a difference.

Tuning a Wurlitzer is a skill to do correctly. It's not easy or quick to do correctly, sure there are shortcuts to tuning, but they are not the professional way. We take the longer approach to do it correctly. Tuning a Wurlitzer also touches on Voicing because you have to center the reed perfectly in order to achieve a balanced tonality. We tune our pianos with a strobe tuner to 440Hz.

Voicing the Wurlitzer is a multi-stepped process and involves different things such as; centering the reed, ensuring the reed has a proper solder formation, adjusting the actual pickup, changing the strike line of the hammer tip, changing hammer tips as well as other things. To manipulate tone on a Wurlitzer takes experience and know-how when problems present themselves. Luckily for our customers and Vintage Vibe, Adam Kaniper, our head Wurlitzer tech is literally the finest in all of the world.

Adjusting dampers on a Wurlitzer is important not only for the feel of the action but for how your sustain pedal reacts when engaged. We have a number of adjustment tricks we employ to optimize performance. We also like to install new Whip assembly grommets that the damper arm uses. New Grommets create a nice feel and remove loose slop.

A strike line is a super import aspect of optimization when dealing with an old piano that has never had custom work done to it. From the factory, Wurlitzer pianos were made as fast as possible, and therefore attention to time-consuming aspects like individual strike line was rarely performed. What we do is listen for any dull notes a new reed will not fix. Once we identify these areas, we adjust the hammer tips strike line, this almost always brings about the full character of the note, including bark, volume and sustain.

Old Wurlitzer amps like the 200 or 200A are no prize these days. I mean there is no advantage to having the original amp anymore with the nasty old bird's nest wiring and unreliability. Today’s amp is miles ahead of the old amp, in sound and installation. If you want the old amp for posterity, great keep it with the piano in a box. A new amp will literally open a whole new soundscape for you without losing any of that Vintage Vibe you think you like.

For all 140 and 200 pianos, a set of aluminum reed bar shields can be installed to drastically reduce audio noise. While old amps are definitely noisy, it's actually the reed bar that creates the most noise. Reed bar shields are not to be mistaken for the Hum shield that you see on pianos. It takes both types of shields to truly cut the noise from a reed bar.

Clavinet key beds are notorious for being out of level due to the nature of the Pratt and Reed keyframe (which also sags). We will ensure your key bed is straight and level and to the best height.

Not many people know about key squaring with Clavinets, but we do, and we do it on all restorations. We ensure there are no rubbing parts and that the keys are level and sitting squarely.

Hammer tips need replacing often. Over the years the tips experience degradation to the point that they revert back their oil-based state, sticky orange goo is the result. Alternatively, there have been many aftermarket tips available and in use. Often these also wear out but more importantly is their durometer. Most are too soft and this results in a lack of definition as well as volume. Particularly on the upper end with the .009 strings where a softer tip does not fret well and can cause a pop as the string sticks to the rubber. We have firmer tips that articulate very well all up and down the scale.

String replacement is paramount to a fresh and alive-sounding clavinet. New strings are full of harmonic complexity. Old strings become flat and muddy, do not hold tune long, and have a shorter sustain. We have partnered with Mapes Piano string Co., the same company that makes piano strings for Steinway and Son’s to produce Clavinet/Vibanet strings for Vintage Vibe. It’s a match that cannot be beaten!

Clavigel Dampening system is a proprietary innovation designed at Vintage Vibe. It outperforms yarn every time and is so simple to install, literally anyone of any age could install it by watching our video in minutes.

If the original preamp is your game then you want it right! We rebuild the preamp and clean all switches, test and clean dressing wires. We use quality components and do a military spec job. With that being said, it's never going to be like a new preamplifier by Vintage Vibe.

Now you have entered into funkville, our Vibanet preamp for your D6, E7 or Model C is just what the funk doctor ordered. A clean and powerful preamp with all-analog circuitry and auto-wah, fx loop, and a killer logical eq. Oh! And no more battery to go dead!

Vintage Vibe makes outstanding pickups to replace your old cracked or dead pickups. Our pickups are made bomb-proof in a glass fiber/nylon case that will not crack or break. We have buried the bobbin wires in epoxy so nothing is exposed to break or short out. Designed by Kevin Beller head of pickup design at Seymour Duncan, so you know these pickups are right.

At Vintage Vibe we test every key for even tension and response. If we find a key that’s too loose we replace the spring.

It is all about an even scale in tone and feel.

Sometimes key bushings deteriorated and the key becomes loose and noisy. A key bushing keeps the key quiet when returning after a strike. It also helps keep the key aligned from side to side. On the downstroke, the top of the key bushing is not utilized because the hammer tip is what stops the hammer from further downward travel. It’s not always necessary to change key bushings but when it is, we have you covered.