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MMD > Archives > April 2005 > 2005.04.20 > 04Prev  Next


Repairing Old Piano Rolls
By Chris Baldwin

Hello fellow MMD'ers,  I had the extreme joy today of inheriting my
great grandmother and grandfather's roll collection.  It arrived in
a giant box from UPS.  The family back East got wind that I owned a
couple of players and all a sudden the rolls from a past generation's
family player piano surfaced.

I was quite dismayed to find that the majority of the rolls are in
quite poor condition.  I played through a few of them fine, and what
fun that was!  But unfortunately, most are water damaged, not spooled
properly, or torn.  Most of them are also missing the roll tab and
leader section, and the roll begins in the middle of hole punchings.

I'd like to try to restore as many of these rolls as I can for the sake
of them being family heirlooms.  It doesn't matter if a few of them
start immediately in the beginning of the song, I'd still like to play
them.  About 70% of them need new roll boxes as well.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to "re-roll" the rolls on their
spools so that they don't weave from side-to-side as they play, and also
how to reattach leaders and roll tabs to them?  This is a new thing for
me to be doing and I'd appreciate any advice you all can share with me.

Thank you all in advance for your help!
Christopher Baldwin
San Diego, California


(Message sent Wed 20 Apr 2005, 04:44:22 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Old, Piano, Repairing, Rolls

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