Greetings -- this is a wonderful mailing list!  I am the somewhat
surprised new owner of what I believe to be a fairly early model
Gulbransen upright; the serial number appears to be 46,145 and I think
that would date this to pre-1915.  There is a metal plate at the top
of the upper part of the piano that says "Workmanship and Material
Guaranteed - Bradford & Company - New York."

The piano seems to have found me -- I wasn't really looking, but
I have always been an old technology buff (several tube radios, an old
Victrola, and various antique scientific instruments) and I was at an
estate auction and nobody else seemed to be bidding on it.  I have
been telling friends that what I have acquired is an 800-pound karaoke
machine!

It's not functional (of course), but might just be very nearly so.
As nearly as I can tell, most of the major inside parts are there and
don't look noticeably tattered (e.g., all of the pneumatic tubes, the
gears that are connected to the roll mechanism, either two or possibly
four leather bellows in the lower cabinet).  And it plays acceptably as
an ordinary upright.

The only obviously missing part is one of the two driving pedals;
there's a carriage that pulls out with one pedal to the left of the
three ordinary foot petals on a standard piano, plus a spot where it
looks like one pedal is missing on the right.  And the auction lot did
include a collection of old rolls, so I'll have something to start with
if I can get it working.

I'm in the Bay Area, on the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge.  From the
little bit of research that I have done so far, it looks like the
closest player technician to me is Dick Leonard over in San Francisco
(and I gather that his twin brother in Minnesota is an active member of
this list).  And that Gulbransen was perhaps the "Ford" of the early
player piano industry -- I don't have a Cadillac, but this might just
turn out to be a serviceable instrument.

So my first task is probably just to give Dick a ring, and bring him
over here to take a look at it.  In the meantime, I would be most
appreciative of any pointers; e.g., anything that looks terribly
mistaken in the summary description here, and/or anything troubling
I should be looking for that would indicate I should abandon all hope
of restoration or refurbishment.

Off-list replies are welcome, and please accept apologies for this
somewhat lengthy introduction.  I will post again if there turns out
to be anything especially interesting on further inspection.

Andrew Bell