
According to one article, outfitting a classroom with electronic pianos was half as expensive as buying conventional student pianos. Technology would need to advance significantly before electronic pianos became what anyone would consider “affordable,” but the 112 was definitely a step in the right direction.

The Wurlitzer 112 cost around $400 in the 1950s, the equivalent of over $3,000 today and about twice the price of a used spinet piano. He made himself a harpsichord from scraps in the backyard eventually, a few neighbors permitted him to use their pianos, in exchange for performing household chores. As a child in the 1880s, legendary ragtime pianist Tony Jackson had burgeoning musical talent but no access to a piano. People had to get creative in order to practice. You could rent a piano, borrow one from a friend, or use a suitcase-like practice piano, which had a few octaves’ worth of realistic keys but no sound mechanism. Before $99 digital keyboards and mobile apps put piano basics within reach of total beginners, students who could not afford a regular piano had very few options.
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However, schools could certainly have used a more convenient update on the conventional piano. For instance, Duke Ellington played one in a 1955 recording, and Wurlitzers were immediately popular with jazz pianists who had previously been stuck with poorly-maintained dive bar pianos.

There was certainly a thriving professional market for electronic pianos. everyone else was an issue that Wurlitzer repeatedly grappled with.
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Schools have different needs than professional or even amateur users, and how to weigh the interests of schools vs.
