Anyone ever fix a wurly 200?

[Milkmansound]

Mine has been acting badly - its noisey, has low output and some weird oscillation when the volume is down. I have not had a chance to do a thorough inspection myself - so I am wondering what kind of things might cause this. If anyone has solved this problem on a wurly before, I would love to know what to look for when I get a chance to work on it next week. It happens with the reed bar disconnected too.

Cant everything just work all the time here? Thats the real question...

 

[Scodiddly]

[quote author="Milkmansound"]Cant everything just work all the time here?[/quote]

That wouldn't be any fun at all.

I've done some work on the 200 series. Probably you've got old electrolytic caps, which is an easy enough thing to fix and worth doing before looking for any deeper problems.

Beyond that there are a few transistors that could have gone bad. And if you've never flossed the tines that's a good thing to do as well (not actually floss, but clean off any little bits of gack and metal whiskers with masking tape).

 

[Steve Jones]

The caps at the RHS front of the PCB have a habit of cracking their solder joints, and the poly cap on the read bar board also should be replaced. Best to replace all the electro's and resolder every joint on the main PCB as there were some bad solder batches on wurlitzers too.

 

[B-A-R]

this might sound strange, but a friend was having a serious noise problem with his whirly, and a tech working on it for 3 days at a studio couldnt fix it...then noticed the power light bulb was blown, replaced it and the thing is dead quiet....dont know if this helps.....thought i'd throw my 2 cents in....good luck.

 

[dustartist]

I fixed my 140B. I got parts and a schematic from Morelock Organ Parts in Mississippi. They are the best source for Wurly parts.

 

[Milkmansound]

I actualy have the schematic too - from Morelocks - I even sent it there twice! No luck - I have been trying to get ahold of the tech but he is ignoring me at this point, I feel like they should refund some of my money because they did not fix the thing. So now I am on my own - I did replace some of the smaller value electros myself, and morelocks replaced the 3 large ones - but perhaps there are more to deal with.

All the solder joints appear to be ok and the lamp works just fine. I guess it just needs a throrough going over - I mean, worse comes to worse I can just blindly replace things until its ok - there is not too much stuff on the PCB, and its all things that I probably have on my bench.

 

[Scodiddly]

Dunno if the 200s are old enough for this problem, but you might check for resistors that have drifted in value. Almost always they'd drift significantly high, so it's easy enough to just run an ohmmeter over all the resistors and see if any are reading higher than they should. You don't even need to pull them out of the circuit.

 

[elmacaco]

When you lift up the lid, there are two capacitors that almost rub against the panel as you are lifting the lid, they look like ceramics, but they are rectangular, try those, I had a problem with them because of the case moving them, I resoldered them and tilted them away from it but it got much better. If I wasn't feeling too lazy I would have replaced them, I think that may be a good move. Perhaps even the regulators.

Also, what output are you using? I've had better luck with the headphone out, you might try adjusting the gain on the aux out with the trim pot under the unit. I ended up running mine through a DI box and it got rid of a lot of hum and weirdness.

 

[BradAvenson]

[quote author="Scodiddly"]Dunno if the 200s are old enough for this problem, but you might check for resistors that have drifted in value. Almost always they'd drift significantly high, so it's easy enough to just run an ohmmeter over all the resistors and see if any are reading higher than they should. You don't even need to pull them out of the circuit.[/quote]

Replace the power resistors, they get really warm and tend to go noisy. Check out the reed bar polarization. Any noise on the reed bar is amplified directly. I would suggest using the power amp output through a DI type transformer for the best sound/lowest noise.

I ended up replacing the amp in mine all together with a new tube amp stage. Sounded great, but not the easiest solution.

 

[Milkmansound]

well, I discovered (with some help - thanks kdawg) that I have a 220 transformer in there and every voltage is at at least half of what its supposed to be - only 12V across the reed bar - could be the problem!

so, when I had the original 110 transformer it exploded - is there something I should look out for with the 220 transformer? Should I use my 110-220 adapter to test the amp out? I realy do not want another smokey explosion in my house.

Maybe I should put a lamp in series and try the 220 thing?

any further advice would be huge - I have no idea why morelock's put in the export 220 transformer. They are closed for the weekend though, and have been ignoring me for months anyway. Bastards!

Man I wish I did not sell my Variac - what was I thinking?!?!?

 

[Milkmansound]

I just talked to what turns out to be the complete scam artist that "repaired" my piano at Morelock's Organ Parts - here is the gist of the transaction:

Me: why did you put in the european 220V transformer
Morelock's: we are out of the other ones and have been doing this for years
Me: but they obviously do not work, since mine is noisey, the voltages are completely off, and you can barely hear the piano
Morelock's: check the speakers - didn' tyours have a torn speaker
Me: well that was a tear in the cone
Morelock's: yes, the cone is the speaker
Me: um, no, the voice coil is the speaker and the tear does not matter cause its just on the cone
Morelock's: send the transformer back and we'll give you a refund
Me: then I'll have no transformer
Morelocks: send it back for a refund
Me: can I adapt with a 110-220 convertor?
Morelock's: the eurpoean transformer works fine

and thus the cycle continues...


Is anyone else shocked and disgusted with these people?!?!? I mean, they literally can not repair the piano. Thank God they are not car mechanics because there would be many deaths!

I guess I am going to try and step it up to 220V at some point - I just hope that the amp does not cause my transformer to explode again, cause then I am really up the creek.

If anyone has some advice for me I would really really appreciate it - has anyone replaced their transformer with a different one? Is there a torroid that would work in there?

 

[BradAvenson]

depending on the vintage of your wurly you need the following voltages:
reedbar: ~170V
amplifier: ~50V

so, two transformers would do.

You need a 120:120 and a 120:44

the 120:120 could be pretty small. or you could use a backward 44:120.

 

[Milkmansound]

see, I am only reading 18V across that reed bar - something else has to be wrong with my amplifier card. Even with the pramary running off of 220, the voltage arcoss the reed bar is off. The schematic does say it should be around 170.

Maybe something is floating around there? The circuit that goes to the reed bar is super super simple - through 1 diode, a few caps and resistors, then on towards the pickup - should not be too hard to find the problem if there is one - or perhaps something on the bar itself is causing a near short.

thanks

 

[Scodiddly]

[quote author="Milkmansound"]see, I am only reading 18V across that reed bar - something else has to be wrong with my amplifier card. Even with the pramary running off of 220, the voltage arcoss the reed bar is off. The schematic does say it should be around 170.

Maybe something is floating around there? The circuit that goes to the reed bar is super super simple - through 1 diode, a few caps and resistors, then on towards the pickup - should not be too hard to find the problem if there is one - or perhaps something on the bar itself is causing a near short. [/quote]

The reed bar is powered through a high impedance, though. It's really being used as a capacitor, like in a condensor mic. So you have to measure the voltage with a very high impedance meter - when I was working on one last year I discovered that my Fluke 123A read too low a voltage off the bar, because its input impedance was only something like 1Mohm.

 

[Milkmansound]

I am using a Fluke 111

but does it have to be super high impedance to read the voltage right off the board though? I am reading 18V at the reed bar connector jack.

 

[Scodiddly]

[quote author="Milkmansound"]I am using a Fluke 111

but does it have to be super high impedance to read the voltage right off the board though? I am reading 18V at the reed bar connector jack.[/quote]

If you have a real scope, try that with the 10x probe for maximum impedance. Not sure what the Fluke 111 has, my 123 (a Scopemeter) was lower than I'd suspected.

 

[BradAvenson]

What is the voltage after the diode D1 (the first diode after the blue wire.)?

That should be like 170-200vdc, but pretty high ripple, since its half wave rectified.

Then check right before the resistor that feed the reedbar (560K?).