•Hi all, I broke a plate while tuning. It was a 1915 Lester player piano that had been stored in a damp garage for 28 years. The entire treble bridge was cracked and all of the strings were rusted. After all of the repairs were made the plate exploded on the very last tuning pin. I was almost finish...

•Al Pebworth contributed an image of a 1976 Duo/Art advert, see http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/Pictures/duo=art.html At the bottom of the ad is Duo/Art - A Division of Aeolian Corporation, Memphis, Tennessee the world's largest exclusive manufacturer of pianos At http://www.mbsi.org/manufacturers.p...

•Hi All, I believe some clarification is required here because the modern player system that was manufactured by Aeolian is called the "Standard Pneumatic Action", not a "Duo-Art", and the "Duo-Art" is a reproducing player system that was manufactured by Aeolian from the mid-teens until about 1930. ...

•When I started out in this trade, I kept saying to myself, "I'll pay my dues on this project so in the future it will be smooth sailing." After 20 years rebuilding players, etc, it was _still_ "rough seas." Ten years ago I narrowed down what rebuilding work I am willing to take on because I want to...

•Jonathan Herz' notes about Baldwin "Acrosonic" console pianos is an interesting insight about how poor they really were. Growing up, according to information at the time, that piano was kind of the 'standard' for small upright pianos. I believe they were used at the prestigious Interlochen music ca...

•Does anybody (besides John Tuttle) remember the QRS "Elepian" player piano? Anyone? Anyone? After years of searching I managed to acquire a semi-working "Elepian". This is an 88-note player piano with a spoolbox and a pneumatically operated key striking mechanism installed in a spinet sized case wi...

•Hi All, It is not advisable to remove the upper part of the player mechanism from the modern Aeolian players. However, to remove the piano action, the upper section must be moved away from the piano action. I have the basic information about removing the piano action from the modern Aeolian console...

•Since my first involvement with mechanical music, I have been curious about the coding of rolls. In the case of the Ampico, I discovered that the popular belief of a seven-step system in the "A" format is woefully short, as the true scheme has many more steps employed. The "Baby Spinet" Ampico is t...

•I'm looking for an on/off micro-switch solution to replace the pneumatic "off" switch in a 1974 Aeolian Duo Art piano. This piano apparently originally had the optional automatic replay feature installed, but some of the parts are missing. The shut-off pneumatic is now connected to the tubing that ...

•Hello Everyone, I've bought a two-manual organ console on eBay, complete with its 18 foot pedals (already detached). It's the center console of a Robert Morton Fotoplayer, Style 49, about the size of a spinet piano, or just a little larger. It has to be moved from the Bay Area of California (El Cer...

•Here is a page of some notes I had on the Kimball player with the earlier tracker bar scale from the WW1 era. It was a simple system but it produced nice music. This was a nice player and the rolls were done very well. There was also another, later tracker bar scale that used some of the center hol...

•Does anybody have a set of 88 player piano solenoids they would be willing to sell at a reasonable price? I'm not particular on the brand. I don't need any of the driver electronics or disk, only the solenoids. Or can someone tell me which brands, if any of 1970s spinet player pianos used solenoids...

•Luke Myers has run into the sad current state of the piano market. Sad to say, there is now a _very_ limited market for _any_ piano. Pianos are being sent to the dumps, even players. I have one player upright I saved from that fate and one non-player spinet (that, in hindsight, I should have let go...

•Well, as usual, there are some interesting pianos in the "For Sale on the Internet" list from the last Digest. Looks like some real bargains are there, so for those who didn't look, I will try to entice you! Go to the website to get the links! If I can do this on dial-up, you should be able to easi...

•I've seen quite a few foot-pumped Ampicos here in Australia, all Marshall & Wendell. The early ones had crescendos with a weaker spring, later examples had no crescendo, even the pedal/electric models with small pump as in Ampico spinet models of the 1930s. All were pleasant enough but no match for...

•Does anybody have any experience with the Player Pianette built in the nineteen-sixties by an Iowa company? It's a sort of modern Vorsetzer. Instead of wheeling it up to the keyboard of a regular piano, it sits on (or over) the keyboard with a solenoid plunger for each key. It incorporates a spool ...

•I am asking if anybody knows what radio chassis and speaker was used in the 1929 Weser Radio-player. Does anybody have a radio chassis and speaker for this piano? I do know that Weydig and Wurlitzer also made player pianos with built-in radios. Were there any others made? The museum I volunteer at ...

•Dear roll collectors, I am getting to the age where it is about time for the retirement home and I need to downsize so I am offering my collection of Joseph Tushinsky's Duo-Art roll collection as well as the majority of my own collection -- several thousand rolls. I want to sell it all as one lot. ...

•When did the Hardman Duo's have traditional valves and then plastic valves? The 1956-59 Hardman Duo console player was built with a traditional single valve action above the keyboard and two-tier stacks, very similar to 1920s Hardman Playotone single valve player pianos. The air motor is on the rig...

•This is a fun subject, too! Robbie's letter about the SE Boesendorfer refers to the ultimate reproducer/registering piano ever built, but not really a product one can sell on the general market. There is no question, however, of its superiority. We know they _can_ work. The question is how do you s...