Hi Fred & Elizabeth,

I'm forwarding your letter to the MMD for posting. I do hope someone
finds it interesting. It would be sad to see it placed in an unheated
garage over the Winter.

Musically,
John A. Tuttle (www.playercare.com)
-------------------------------------------

At 05:26  11/23/97 -0500, you wrote:

> Dear John,
>
> My husband & I have still been trying to sell the Lauter-Humana Player
> Piano we emailed you about last spring.  If you remember, we kind of got
> roped into taking it--because we operate a Music Preservation Project
> mainly geared to save old magazines and other ephemera--from some people
> who were basically going to junk it.  But we really do not have the room
> to house it, nor the time or money to put into restoring it properly.
> We want to see it get a good home!!
>
> Because our main motive is saving musical devices, we intend to sell
> this player for $500 if it can be picked up on or before Dec.19, which
> is just the amount we put into it.  We are not in a position to take a
> loss on it because of various personal situations.  After that time we
> will be asking somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 to $1,500.
>
> We have worked with Vienna Piano of Hackettstown to rid the piano of its
> musty odor, and to restore the keyboard (new bridles, key leveling, key
> replacement, tuning, etc.)  However, the player mechanism needs full
> restoration.  Randy R. Johnson, the piano technician who did the tuning,
> examined the player and indicated it seemed to need primarily new tubing
> and bellows work.  This 1915 mahogany Lauter-Humana has serial #48268
> and comes with nearly 40 rolls, almost all in very, very good condition.
> We are told this brand of player is ideal for the beginning restorer,
> not only because of the modular nature of construction, but also because
> of its durable parts.
>
> We have put 2 pictures of this piano available on the web.  The first:
>
>      http://www.planet.net/fmina/playerpiano.gif
>
> shows the front of the Lauter-Humana open with player mechanism in full
> view.  The second:
>
>      http://www.planet.net/fmina/lauterhumana.gif
>
> shows (on the left) the piano closed except for player door, and (on the
> right) the piano soundboard & strings, which were exposed when the
> tuning and keyboard work was done.
>
> As you know, we live in northwest New Jersey.  People with questions can
> either email us (emina@planet.net) or call at 908-852-5348.  Vienna
> Piano of Hackettstown is available for piano moving from our area.
>
> Feel free to distribute this message if you know anyone who would be
> interested in this player.  We wonder if you could possibly put this
> message on the Mechanical Music Digest mailing list so that it could
> reach the people who would be more interested in it.
>
> We really want this player saved, and would feel very badly if we had to
> move it to our unheated garage, which (unfortunately) is our only other
> option.  Thanks so much for any help you can give us!!
>
> Fred & Elizabeth Mina
>
>