Hi All,  Back when I started the "850+ Player Piano Makes & Makers"
listing at Player-Care.com, I asked Durrell Armstrong, the owner of
Player Piano Co., if he objected to me using his listing as a starting
point.  He did not object, and the list was turned into a web page.
(By the way, Durrell's list was last updated about two decades ago.)

Over the years that the list has been in place, I have made over 200
changes as new information comes to light.  When I hear about a piano
maker that isn't on the list, I go out of my way to find out as much
as I can about the piano and the player system that is installed in
the instrument.  Sometimes this is very simple, other times it's quite
involved, but the quest for information is never ending.

So, when I read John Dewey's posting about the Pease piano with the
Otto Higel action, I immediately updated the list again.  I strongly
believe that the listing at Player-Care is now the most comprehensive
listing of its kind on the planet, but it remains a 'work in progress'.
(It rarely stays 'static' for more than a month, and I think that's
great!)  And, next to the main index page at Player-Care, the "Makers"
page is the most popular page in the Player-Care domain.  It gets
visited an average of 2,250 times a month (in 2003).

One of my new projects is creating a listing of reproducing and
expression piano makers.  In this case, the starting point will be the
extraction of information from various reference books.  However, just
like the listing of regular 88-note players, I fully expect the list
to grow as time goes by.

As I see it, one of the real beauties of the Internet is the ease with
which information can be updated.  Unlike printed reference materials,
which hardly ever change, making changes 'one-at-a-time' to a web page
is quick, painless, and extremely inexpensive (bordering on 'zero').

So, if you've got the time, check out the 'Makers' listing.  If you
know of any makes that aren't on the list, please send me an email
<john@player-care.com>.  The list is at
http://www.player-care.com/makers.html

Musically,

John A. Tuttle
Player-Care.com
Brick, NJ, USA