Does anybody (besides John Tuttle) remember the QRS "Elepian" player
piano?  Anyone?  Anyone?

After years of searching I managed to acquire a semi-working "Elepian".
This is an 88-note player piano with a spoolbox and a pneumatically
operated key striking mechanism installed in a spinet sized case with
electronic sound generating circuitry.  This was marketed by QRS for
a short time back in the 1970s or '80s.  It has two piano-sounding
timbres, one harpsichord and a "chorus" of some sort.  It weighs only
about 275 pounds.

I'm planning to hire myself out for retro "sing-alongs", maybe with
a video camera/projector that shows the words on the roll for a
karaoke-like experience.  It should be good for birthday parties, lawn
parties, assisted-living facilities where folks "of a certain age" can
have fun reminiscing about the old songs.  Of course, I'll have to be
careful to do only public domain material so as to not run afoul of
ASCAP and BMI, etc.

So, of course, there was no documentation with it and a search here on
the QRS site turns up nothing.  The only one of these I ever saw "back
in the day" was in a nursing home setting, and I serviced it several
times.  When I was looking for one about five years ago and inquired
at the home about it, I was told, "Oh, it never worked right and we
sent it to the dump."  Apparently the former activities director at
the facility had not passed my contact information to her replacement
<sigh>,

Now I'm trying to find any available information, especially technical
documentation that I will need to get it fully functional.  It would
also be nice if I could find at least one more unit to use for spare
parts, so I am offering a "finder's fee" to anyone that can provide
a lead to an available unit.  Anyone?  Anyone?

John Grant
Baltimore, Maryland

 [ MMDigest articles about the Elepian are indexed at
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/E/elepian.html 
 [ -- Robbie