•This is exactly what it says: an Autopiano action (from New York) fitted to a London-made Eavestaff piano. The fitting would have been done by or for Kastner & Co, who had the exclusive dealership for Autopiano in London (they have been mentioned in MMD on various occasions). They used a fairly wid...

•Dear Don, Several years ago someone gave my wife an 88-note roll at an MBSI meeting. It was our first mechanical music meeting ever. We reluctantly accepted it with the objection that we didn't have a piano to play it on. The person asked if we knew anyone who did have a piano that would play the r...

•I am 72 years old and must now downsize. I have been in the player rebuilding business since 1961 and am getting tired and want to take it easy. I have much more invested in these pianos than what I am asking for them. I want to move them out. (1) 1922 Franklin Ampico grand with matching bench @ $9...

•Several years ago someone gave my wife a piano roll. We objected, saying that we didn't have a player piano. At that time we had very little knowledge of mechanical music, but had a friend who had some sort of piano that played by using rolls, so we agreed to take the roll telling the person (the i...

•For Sale: I am 72 years old and must downsize. I have been in the player rebuilding business since 1961 and want to take it easy. I have much more invested in these pianos than what I am asking for them. I want to move them out. (1) 1922 Franklin Ampico Grand with matching bench @ $750 (3) Wurlitze...

•I have the following 10 player pianos free to a good home. They are located near Syracuse, New York. They are in very good restorable condition or I wouldn't have bought them many years ago as an investment. I am 73 and am getting out of the business; my loss is your gain! 1920 Cable Nelson # 12008...

•Hello all, I would like to second the expressions of Randy Hammond. I have had the honor to restore three Mason and Hamlin "A"s, two Chickering "59"s, a Steinway XR, and a late Steinway OR. All of these instruments would still be unrestored and unused were it not for the existence of e-valves and r...

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, ...

•John Tuttle's "850+ Player Piano Makes & Makers" list of piano brands and their player actions is wonderful, a real achievement (as is his whole web site). However, there is one little problem for the global era - it's all American! Luckily, the MMD is just the right forum to fill in this slight om...

•In MMD 12/3/98 Bryan Cather mentions "other odd pianos" and includes one without a pinblock. I have recently restored a Beale player and they have no wooden pinblock. They use a system designed by Vader (German) which has a full cast plate and which is about 1" thick where the pins go. The pins hav...

•Here are my results of the past year of research of Foster & Co. pianos. The art case Foster was built in 1912-1914. A few more examples of these pianos have surfaced. A very few of these were oak veneer, and even rarer is rosewood or burl walnut. This piano cost about $650 new, FOB Rochester NY. O...

•Hello MMD readers, This term of "half" for Duo-Art -- as if an electric model with two accordion pneumatics equals a "whole" (or something 'more' in music) -- is a recently-coined false expression. (It appears to have originated in the U.K. during the 1970's, from what I can gather.) The fact is, t...

•Hello everyone, I have been quietly reading posts here for some time. Finally, I would like to participate in some discussions and get some suggestions and input from all of you. I have a piano business, Carriage House Music, located south of Portland Oregon. We have been here for 5-1/2 years and w...

•Hello MMD readers, from our campsite near Skowhegan, Maine, and run- ning e-mail at 9600 bytes/second today on the analog cellular 'phone. I have just downloaded another stack of Internet letters, including several issues of the Mechanical Music Digest, the latest of which concerned a posting for "...

•Hello MMD Readers, We just launched this illustrated web page, at the end of the year: http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/monmouth.htm There are ten JPEG pictures on this URL, which focuses on the town of Monmouth, Maine. We were invited to contribute material for a museum display in that town. Lynn...

•Hello MMD. I was in our local Post Office the other day, mailing off a piano roll, when the postmistress said "Ooooh, have you got a pianola? We've got one at home but it hasn't worked since we moved into our new house." Because she looked at me very appealingly, I said I'd have a quick look to see...

•Bennett Leedy phoned me to advise of several pianos that are available in Michigan. (Bennett doesn't get on-line much anymore.) First is a Weber style WR Duo-Art. This piano was restored over forty years ago and will need work. The mahogany case was never refinished. It is located north of Grand Ra...

•Hello MMD readers, With great interest, I've been reading the recent string of postings about the American versus the British Duo-Art players and also the texts about the differences in the expression boxes. Having made Duo-Art rolls which "push" the entire spectrum of the instrument, for years, I'...

•Hello MMD readers, Our July 11th concert, here at Searsport Shores, started out with an anticipated low turnout, due to the fact that this particular musicale was scheduled for a weekday and not a Saturday evening presentation. We were wrong, however, since the empty seats began to fill as the firs...

•-- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD -- Hello, I am e-mailing you from England for a friend who restores player pianos. He has an old Ampico Marque and requires a wiring diagram for the tubes etc. to make it work. I wonder if you or a colleague can help at all or perhaps direct me t...