Re: Space for Player Piano
By Bruce Clark
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
|
(Message sent Tue 7 Jan 1997, 14:16:02 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
|
|
Mechanical
Music Digest™ Archives
