Clavia nord electro2 User Manual

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The next instrument to be sampled for the Nord Elec-
tro 2 is the Wurlitzer electric piano model 200. What 
became the Wurlitzer electric piano was originally de-
signed by Benjamin Franklin Miessner, born in 1890. 
An American inventor who became involved with inno-
vations in radio during his early years, Miessner de-
signed an electro-acoustic instrument pick-up in 1921. 
A company called Amperage manufactured it for gui-
tars in 1928. After selling his radio patents to RCA in 
1930, Miessner set up a laboratory to develop his ideas 
on electrifying musical instruments with the goal of cre-
ating small, affordable electric pianos for educational 
use. He experimented with ways of amplifying the 
strings in an acoustic piano that lacked a sound board, 
and he filed a patent for this design in 1931. Miessner 
continued to develop his theories and give the piano a 
more powerful tone. He began incorporating metal 
reeds in place of strings because the reed timbre and the 
decay of their vibrations sounded superior to the mud-
dy quality of the soundboardless strings.

At this point Miessner's concept garnered lots of interest from 
piano manufactures around the country. His ideas reached the 
big jukebox and organ company, Wurlitzer, where someone re-
alized the invention had great potential. Wurlitzer bought the 
patent and the rights to make this instrument and immediately 
started the development of an electric piano. They wanted to 
produce an electric piano similar to the Rhodes, but with a more 
piano-like action and sound. The basic design incorporated felt-
dressed hammers similar to those in an acoustic piano to stroke 
the metallic reeds. The vibrations from the stroke on the reeds 
produced a big, fat, rich tone, which was sensed by the electro-
static pick ups, amplified and routed to the built-in speakers on 
the front of the piano. In the patent text from 1959, which 
Miessner had originally filed in 1950 with Wurlitzer as the as-
signee, you can understand his intentions and design goals. He 
wanted to built a compact, lightweight instrument with a real pi-
ano action. It was also important that the piano sound like an 
acoustic piano. Miessner declared that his invention would solve 
the tuning problems associated with acoustic pianos.