It was April, 2004, if I remember correctly.  I was fascinated by
player pianos for a few years then, and searching for pictures on-line.
The only player piano I'd ever seen was an orchestrion/nickelodeon when
I was four years old.  It was in a restaurant in a theme park here in
the Netherlands; I don't know where, exactly.  I didn't eat anything
-- I just sat in front of the instrument for about half an hour.

Anyway, when I was looking for more information on the Internet I came
across a web site advertising player pianos.  There was one in the UK
that was free to collect.  I couldn't imagine that anybody would give
such thing away (little did I know!).  So I arranged to pick it up,
knowing nothing about it other that it was complete.  My friend and
I drove in a hired van to England, over France and through the tunnel.
(I let my friend drive as I just had my driver's license for like three
days.)

Okay, we finally arrived; the player piano was in a garage full of
motorbikes.  The finish had sort of deteriorated from the exhaust
fumes and oil spilled over it, but under the key cover it looked kind
of beautiful.  Back home I started refinishing the cabinet, which went
rather well.  Also, the piano was in reasonably good shape, although
five semitones too low.  (It is up to the right pitch for four months
now).  I restored the player action (actually, I only recovered the
pneumatics) and the instrument played rather well.  After some time
the motor slowed down and I recovered that as well, and after that
the governor.

A friend tunes and regulates the piano and charges one web site, which
I'll build for him.  The player piano is my first mechanical musical
instrument, so it has a special value for me, but I will sell it
someday and try to find a better one, as the piano isn't such high
quality and neither is the player action.

I recently restored a Hupfeld, which is a bit harder to do, and it
still needs loads of tweaking before it'll play right.  I'm now working
on a Hupfeld push-up which I found in a leaking barn.  It's full of
bugs and stuff, so it'll take me around ten years or so I guess.

It just keeps me busy.

Niels Berkers
Arnhem, The Netherlands