Having been screening the digest for several weeks, I guess it's about
time to introduce myself to you all.

  I'm Doug Helfman, an accountant, married to a physician, with two girls
age 5 and 8.   I was attracted to player pianos almost 40 years ago upon
hearing Zez Confrey's "Dizzy Fingers" on a restaurant player piano.
Perhaps it was being told that my grandfather who I never knew used to
play Dizzy Fingers.  He used to play piano and organ in the silent
movie theaters.

  My interest abated until college years in the early 70's when I helped
purchase a player piano for my fraternity.  A few years of that exposure
sufficed until last fall when my older daughter voiced an interest in
taking piano lessons.  The time seemed right to meld my lifelong interest
with my daughter's, and my wife found out she married a truly crazy
person when I began the search.

  We now own 1919 Milton upright piano with a Welte-Mignon licensee
action (no, not the piano located north of NYC that was recently posted
to the digest).  The piano works although not recently reconditioned, so
it has some problems.  Through my search I met a local piano technician,
Debra St. Charles, and a reproducer expert extraodinaire, John Grant,
who told me about this digest.

  Now I'm on the learning curve regarding Welte's and players, and find
the interchange of the digest both interesting and instructional.  I know
it's only a matter of time before I find out first hand what makes my own
player do what it does.
•
        Doug Helfman            For you history buffs, yes this town near
        Catonsville, Maryland   Baltimore is where Father Daniel Berrigan
                                broke into a Selective Service office and
                                trashed files about 25 years ago, about six
                                houses from my home.