Hello MMD members!  Much has been said here about the public's general
lack of interest in old player pianos.  This might well be true but,
as I had posted here about a week ago, I have been looking for a great
old "restored" player piano for my 90-year-old father for Christmas.
I must report back to the forum that I have so far been unable to find
a good "restored" player.

I followed-up last Saturday on what was termed a "restored" Cunningham
player in New Jersey listed on eBay.  What a wild goose chase that was.
The Cunningham turned out to be an 85-year-old player that had not been
touched or repaired since new.  It was so leaky that you had to pump
until you were blue in the face to get any notes to play at all.  On
long note chains it would bog down to a full stop.

The strings were rusty and dead, the action was worn-out with at least
six hammers and keys sticking on the strings.  Many bridle straps were
broken and the felts were moth eaten and heavily grooved.  The only
thing that you could say that was done to this piano was the old varnish
had been stripped, along with most of the grain filler and much of the
stain color.  What a mess.

My point here?  If the average person thinks that this is an example of
a player piano when "restored" they would never want one.  I have not
seen any around that I would really call "restored" in the Philadelphia
area.  Several years back, a friend in my area decided to sell a hoard
of about thirty player pianos that he had picked up at auctions and
house sales over a twenty-year period.  Also in this hoard were a
number of Seeburg coin pianos that I bought from him.

He needed the storage space and offered to give away the players for
free.  There were no takers except for a few that had very nice unusual
artful cases.  One had a heavily carved mahogany case, several mission
style cases and one great Egyptian case.  Only these four out of the
hoard found new owners.  They were bought by player piano rebuilders.
The plain-jane cased pianos were scrapped as no person wanted them.
I found this to be very sad, yet this is today's player piano market.

In my opinion the best quality players with the art style cases should
be saved at any and all cost.  Eventually a buyer will be found for these
great pianos.  There is however a short ready supply of quality "restored"
player pianos on the market today.  Most rebuilders will not restore a
piano on "spec", hoping that a new owner will be found some day.  Most
of their business is rebuilding, repairing, and restoring players that
have been in families for many years.  Few of these families will be
willing to pay the price of a true quality full restoration.

We all know the time it takes to do a full restoration and the money
that must be charged for this time.  I do believe that rebuilder and
restoration craftsmen should do a better job advertising the work that
they perform.

Most people today have never really heard a quality restored player
piano actually play.  The old tinny, worn out, leaky, out-of-tune
player is what most people think of when one mentions a player piano.
This is the image that must be turned around in the public's mind if
these great machines are to be saved and sought after by future
collectors.

A friend once talked a local shopping mall into letting him display a
half dozen properly restored juke boxes from the 1940s-50s in the center
of the mall for a weekend.  The end result was five of these great
music machines were sold be the end of that weekend.  Might I suggest
that this be tried with several restored player pianos!

Most people today do not know that these fine player pianos exist
today.  They also don't know that piano rolls are also easy to find.
If they only could experience the great sound of a quality player piano
I am sure that they would fall in love with it on the spot.  Just like
my 90-year-old dad did 85 years ago, and like I did forty years later.

I fell in love with player pianos when my eyes were just below key level.
I like the wonderful mechanical nature of the player piano as well as
the music.  I cannot play a piano myself, but with a player piano I feel
as if I am part of making this music.  What a great joy this is!

It is up to us all to get the word out if this mechanical music hobby
is to continue to thrive in the future.  I am sure there are many
potential future collectors and enthusiasts out there somewhere.  We
just have to "spread the word"!

Brad Hunter