Wurlitzer 700 (Mahogany): Details & Closeups
Is a piano more an instrument or a piece of furniture? If you're reading this blog, you'd probably find the question offensive. Of course a piano is an instrument! But if you just live with a pianist - as a spouse or a parent - you'd might have a different perspective. Specifically, that the piano is neither instrument nor furniture but some big wooden behemoth that takes over the living room and clashes with everything.
And so, for hundreds of years, pianos have been designed to harmonize with the average home decor as much as possible. There are exceptions: the Wurlitzer 112, for instance, was given a futuristic look befitting the cutting-edge technology inside. It was designed to upend the status quo of pianos as immobile hunks of hardwood.
The 700, on the other hand, was intended to play nice. Like the many consumer pianos that came before it, it has a traditional look: dark wood, a gracefully curved music rack, discreet curves. Its loudest embellishment is a 6" wide cutout in the bottom panel that camouflages the 12" speaker mounted behind. Of course, none of this changes the rich tone that its vintage tube amp produces.
We currently have two Wurlitzer 700 pianos. Here's some of our favorite details from our mahogany version of this classic vintage keyboard.
Further Reading
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