Wurlitzer 905 question

[libraryguy]

I'm seeking advice on what I believe to be a Wurlitzer 905 with two 61 note keyboards, 25 pedal and a two octave mini keyboard.

Two of these are for sale in my area. This is the one with pink and red tabs (just plain weird), a double straight rail of stops and an Orbit III. The only name on is "Concert". I'm guessing it is early 80s. It is in an estate sale and they claim it has only one person playing it. Of course we don't know how many decades ago that was.

Anyone have experience with one of these things? Asking price is $95.

[chrisn9008]

Hi
It doesn't sound like a 950 to me, could possibly be an 805 Centura. There were a good organ in their time, is there not a model plate on it right hand side lower keyboard

[libraryguy]

https://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/ms...541708960.html

Here is the link to it. It doesn't look quite the same as the 805 images I found. Could it be one of those Omni organs?

[andyg]

D172. Last of the 'real' US built Wurlitzers and one to forget, IMHO.

You can put your own meaning for the 'D'. Of course it stood for 'digital' but many dealers (possibly most of them here in the UK) would have said that it stood for dreadful, dire, disastrous etc etc. The Wurlitzer slogan for the coloured tabs was 'Earth Tone'. We tended to call them 'dirt tone'. You get the feeling I didn't like them? You'd be right, but neither did the dealers. A big nail in the already closing coffin of a once proud manufacturer.

I'd give it a wide berth, even at this price - unless you want to try it out and then maybe resell it as a console for a virtual organ.

[chrisn9008]

Please keep away!!!! As Andy says this was probably the worst range of organs that WurliTzer produced, I worked for a dealer in Preston and I cannot remember us ever selling one!

[libraryguy]

It turned out to be a D170. Probably can't get it anyway. It's too far and I can't overcome the moving logistics. A church organist checked it out and found no problems.

[andyg]

A church organist might not understand how much of it worked! ;-)

[tccourtney727]

Is this why no one is interested in the 1960 4700A Wurlitzers? Was the company having problems? I know these organs are a bit big for having around these days, and only a specialist can keep them singing, but you can't give them away.

[toodles]

The 4700 is a different animal from the D170 or even the 905. The 4700 was designed as a church organ, but more "flutey" in sound than most church organs of the day. It's highest principal/diapason pitch register was 4 ft, meaning there was no 2 ft. Super Octave, Mixture(s), nor principal mutations. Thus, the stop list seems aimed more at a gospel sound than classical.

I don't think the 4700 is well known in the Church organ market, and they are getting up there in age. This probably accounts for little demand. Most classical organists would want a different stoplist--I certainly would not be happy with it. The 4700 is still a frequency divider organ, so no real sense of ensemble such as analog Rodgers or Allen organs, nor any celeste voices.

Wurlitzer was financially doing OK in the 1960's but the mid to late 70's brought a collapse in the home organ market--all the home organ manufacturers suffered or started to suffer.

Wurlitzer was out of its core market with the 4700, and so they didn't get their only real church model (at least since the days of the electrostatic reeds) quite right. Lowrey, Thomas, Gulbransen, and Wurlitzer all had at least one 32-note pedalboard "church" organ, and none of them really did it right. Allen and Rodgers, of course, made serious church organs, with Baldwin and Conn offering both home organs as well as church organs.

The real problem with servicing a Wurlitzer 4700 organ is that the console has way too much stuff in it for easy access. By now, the electrolytic capacitors need replacing and there would be a ton of them in that console.

I always thought the 4700 was a very attractive console though.

[tccourtney727]

Thank you Toodles for your answer. I was beginning to give up on finding anything out about this organ. It seems rather sad to get rid of it as no one else has owned it. I tried to decide if I could make a bar or something out of it as it is such a solid piece of work. I may take the back off and see if that is a possibility. Once again, thanks I love learning about antique items and their history.

Therese