Having had many pianos in my house, several at a time (we walked
sideways), I can tell you the old story we used to tell hesitant
customers in the Baldwin Piano and Organ store many years ago.

If you were to cut out a piece of paper the size of the floor space taken
by a small spinet upright piano, and compare it with the size of a large
upright piano, you will find the difference to be very little!  The
illusion of size is the mass of the piano itself, and since the floor
space would be used anyway, a large upright piano really does not take up
that much more space.

A large upright has better tone, and usually will hold it's tune much
better than a little piano which is usually not that well made.  I have a
baby Ampico, not by choice, but because it happened to be in the right
place at the right time, and the price was right.  It happens to be a
nicely-made piano produced in the late 1920's for those of moderate means.
It was probably better built than most new pianos of similar size and
design today.

If I had a choice, I would prefer a larger upright.  Not only is the tone
much better, but the accessability to the action is easier and not all
crammed together.  It is not an easy task to tune a very small player
piano because the player action blocks access to the tuning area.  I
happen to like the Ampico Reproducing piano because the music is pleasing,
and is geared to an average living room or music room.

There are those who prefer reproducing pianos that have capabilities of
louder expression, but like sugar in coffee, after two teaspoons, _more_
is not necessarily better or makes an appreciable difference.  In the case
of reproducing pianos, any vacuum level over 40" (to me) is wasted and
only serves to wear out the piano hammers and action.

In my opinion, an electrified player piano is a horror!  Usually a loud
humming from a motor accompanies the music roll.  At one level of vacuum
the music plunks away at a monotonous one-level volume, without any
accents whatsoever.

Pumping the pedals on a properly restored player piano can be fun.  One
can learn to anticipate the music, and accent themes by varying the stroke
of pedalling and operating the levers, giving the player pianist some
involvement in the music.

My advice is to find yourself a nice player piano, and have it properly
restored, and you will enjoy it for many years!

Bruce Clark

 [ I think Barry Kasindorf's Franklin Marque Ampico advertised tonight
 [ would be "just right" for Mr. Kossman!  :-)    -- Robbie