You wouldn't take one of the 50 Tucker automobiles and modify it with
a new engine, interior, and rear spoiler, but it's done all the time
with other classic cars ('57 Chevy's for example) when the supply of
those cars exceeds the demand for the car in it's original
configuration.

Isn't there a surplus of player pianos?  Not all are restored and
working, to be sure, but I thought the supply exceeds the demand at the
current prices.  If that's the case, and if an old piano can be rebuilt
and modified to play from MIDI files thus making it desirable to a new
class of consumers, doesn't it make sense to do so rather than let it
rot in a warehouse or garage?

Isn't one of the neat things about a player piano the amount of
ingenuity and creativity that went into designing such a system?  The
same could be said of the ingenuity shown by those people who designed
the MIDI interface and vacuum-relay blocks.  Impressive.

I'd like to still have to pump the piano to make it work rather than
motorize it; I like that part.  But if I could replace my very limited
collection of $3-$12 rolls with a $50 CD containing 1,000 of my
favorite songs, I'd definitely do so.  Also, it would be great if
someone found a way to mount a flat-screen LCD monitor in the piano
where the roll normally goes, and had the words scroll by on that so
everyone can sing along.

Bill Mackin