The Wurly is in pretty good condition.. It’s a 200A model, therefore from the mid to late 70s. The ‘A’ part of the model brings with it various minor improvements to the design, mostly related to hum and noise reduction. The internal AC power leads were moved inside a metal shielding tube – instead of, for some reason, just moving the transformer and rectifier away from the sensitive capacititive pickup system and amplifiers. A large metal shield was also wrapped around the pickup area to prevent hum – The bulk of which assumedly comes from nearby 50/60hz AC power. In addition, the number of available colours was reduced to 2 (from 4)- black and avocado. Thereby effectively removing the requirement to chose a colour. I’ve never seen one in Australia that wasn’t black. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 200 model in Australia either.

When did it get to Australia? When was it converted for 240v operation? The nameplace says 117v still. A clipping of newspaper pulled from under the keyboard shows some interest in Ohio at least.

The main issue when I got it was filth. It becomes clear that a whilst 40+ year old piano has a history we’ll never get to know, the grime accumulated is unambiguous.

Starting to disassemble it, the original intent was just to give it a clean and put it back together. Thus, lazily I didn’t fully remove the amp rail, but instead lifted it and pulled the keys out from underneath.

The original intent was just to disassemble, check for any obvious issues, give it a clean and put it back together. Of course, the project morphed into a full restoration.

After disassembly, the following was found inside my precious piano –

• 2d dust
• Spilled drink residue
• 3d dust
• Newspaper snippets
• Dust that’s hardened and possibly had mould growing in it
• Tinsel runoff
• Hair con dust
• Dead insect larvae
• Dust (uncategorised)