Clavia electro 2 Guida Utente

T

HE

 W

URLITZER

 EP

The next instrument to be sampled for the Nord Electro 
2 is the Wurlitzer electric piano model 200. What be-
came 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 designed 
an electro-acoustic instrument pick-up in 1921. A com-
pany called Amperage manufactured it for guitars in 
1928. After selling his radio patents to RCA in 1930, 
Miessner set up a laboratory to develop his ideas on elec-
trifying musical instruments with the goal of creating 
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 de-
velop 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 vi-
brations sounded superior to the muddy quality of the 
soundboardless strings.

At this point Miessner's concept garnered lots of interest from pi-
ano manufactures around the country. His ideas reached the big 
jukebox and organ company, Wurlitzer, where someone realized 
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, 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 assignee, you can understand his intentions and 
design goals. He wanted to built a compact, lightweight instru-
ment with a real piano action. It was also important that the pi-
ano sound like an acoustic piano. Miessner declared that his 
invention would solve the tuning problems associated with acous-
tic pianos.