Wurlitzer 4700 dying

[Guest]

Greetings!

I think I am about to get in way over my head.

Our church has been using its Wurlitzer 4700, I believe since it was new. Until recently, it was never serviced or maintained to our knowledge. A few years ago, a well-meaning sound man cut the cord to the Leslie unit and attempted to wire the organ directly into the sound system. Somewhere during this process, the bass channel amplifier was damaged, and we called in a repairman to service the organ. He serviced the organ, replaced some odds and ends, repaired the bass amp, and overhauled the Spectratone which had seized up. The Leslie unit still was having significant problems (he believes it caused the problem in the bass amp), so to save cost we opted to leave it disconnected (we were already enjoying how much better the organ sounded). However, the repairman advised us that the organ was not likely to be worth repairing further.

The organ has performed great since then. However, two Sundays ago we smelled the telltale smell of burning electronics. We unplugged the organ, removed the back cover, and tried to see what might be getting hot enough to cause the problem. One person touched the driveshaft of the Spectratone motor and nearly burned her finger, it was so hot. The Spectratone itself moves freely, as does the motor.

Obviously, we don't know much about what we are doing. Basically, we are hoping to gather some insight as to whether or not this organ might be worth fixing, whether it might be simple to fix, or even to be instructed as to the kind of questions we need to be asking. We could probably afford to do some more work to this organ, probably could not afford to buy a new one. We are hesitant to buy a used one (say, from Craigslist or something) that may or may not have similar problems.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give!

Eli

[davidecasteel]

Could be a short in the Spectratone motor? I wouldn't think a repair or replacement of that would be too expensive.

David

[paulj0557]

Contact Morelock Wurlitzer parts and repair morelocksorgan@frontiernet.net
They have parts to fix anything Wurlitzer



Where are you- if you do a search for a post on here ( possibly RC feeds) of Church organ for sale...something for sale...I did the ad for a seller in Ohio because nobody was willing to pay $250 for a beautiful 4700! I don't get it?? So I listed it on the Forum. ( look at my started threads). I have a 4500 and regardless of what people say about replacing organ with something new, NOTHING will have that sweet Wurlitzer tone. These organs sound good with the Spectratone because there are 8 different speakers strategically placed throughout the organ with real crossovers, slots in the top of the organ for 'player tonal experience', even a horn for chorus mode. Of course the Spectratone also has an out of round disc on the rear of the axle that when it spins gradually breaks a light beam and precisely correlates the ??? Don't know what it does really- is it vibrato, is it part of the chorus unit. I do know that early spectratones used a solenoid looking contraption that when the spectratone would spin the pin would go back and forth in the outer coil windings. It actually changed the volume as the speakers revolved to help simulate a farther travel. The newer ones like on the 4300, 4500, and 4700 all have the light breaking disc and another winding of wire on the opposite side from the disc.
I'd say that it would be your best bet to fix your existing Spectratone. Contact Morelock Wurlitzer parts and repair morelocksorgan@frontiernet.net or keep an eye out on ebay. I have a spare Spectratone from a Wurlitzer 4300 that is a direct fit on my 4500 so it would probably work on your 4700. The thing is that all of these Spectratones are built like tanks, but do have wearable parts. My dad was an electronic balancing engineer with accounts with Leslie, so I know the importance of a well balanced system and the damage that can be caused when one goes out of balance. The spectratones can often stop 'slapping' if you lift one side and wedge something between the thick fiber board and the outer metal steel plate frame of the actual unit. Bottom line, contact Morelocks. Getting another used spectratone isn't the answer, but getting new bushings etc. from Morelocks and rebuilding your is.

[Guest]

Thanks for the info! I will certainly check into Morelock. I'm going to tinker with it tonight and see if I can switch the Spectratone unit off- if it plays without heating up or creating a smell, I will be a little more confident that we are chasing the right part.

We have always liked the sound of this organ, especially since the last round of repairs. It would be really cool to get the Leslie going again, but that's a project for another day...

[Guest]

Well, I don't think it was the Spectratone, after all. The belt was definitely slipping- I am confident that the friction was causing the drive pulley to heat up. I removed the belt and turned on the organ- the motor spun up just fine and ran perfectly silent. I walked around to the front and played two or three chords (sounded fine) and came back to the rear of the organ. Already I could smell that frying electricity smell. I sniffed around and concluded that the smell was coming from an area significantly above the Spectratone, where there are a number of transformers. Also, in that area, I found a large number of spliced wires, some of which were merely twisted together. I unplugged the organ and felt the transformers but none were warm. My next plan is to go back with a multimeter and start following the spliced wires- I'd like to know what they go to and maybe figure out why they were cut in the first place. I'm also going to take a better flashlight and see if I can see signs of heat inside (not that I don't enjoy stuffing my hand into a large mass of unknown circuitry...)