Wurlitzer electric piano

Each key on a Wurlitzer, or Wurli, sends a small hammer into a metal reed. An electrostatic pickup, charged to about 170 volts DC, turns the reed’s vibration into a signal, and a built-in amplifier drives one, two or four small speakers, depending on the model. Most Wurlitzers have 64 keys, from A1 to C7 (an octave in from each end of a full piano). Many have a tremolo that makes the volume pulse, though the knob is often labeled vibrato.

Next to a Rhodes, a Wurlitzer is sharper and punchier, with a shorter sustain. Play C4, E4 and G4 softly and the chord sounds sweet and a little reedy. Hit the same keys hard and the reeds throw off extra harmonics, so the attack turns gritty, close to overdriven. That bite is the Wurlitzer sound. On a synth or a sampled Wurli, a touch of drive brings it out, and a volume LFO at a few pulses per second stands in for the tremolo.

The first model, the 100, was announced in 1954. Ray Charles’s 1959 hit “What’d I Say” features a model 120. The plastic-lidded 200 arrived in 1968, with around 88,000 made, and its update, the 200A of 1974, stayed in production into 1983. Supertramp used Wurlitzers heavily in the 1970s, on songs such as “The Logical Song” and “Dreamer”.

Most beginners first hear a Wurlitzer as a preset called Wurli or Wurlitzer in a keyboard, synth app or DAW, usually next to a Rhodes. Gelato Chord’s sounds include a recording of a Wurlitzer EP200. Classic electric piano sounds compares the two, along with the DX7.