Should I Save This Ex-Pianola?

Hi John and group,  I vote that, _yes,_ you should save this piano.
It sounds like a really good one and even if you never put a player
action back in it, I and probably many of my friends will really enjoy
playing it by hand once it's restored.  In fact, based on your
description, I might want to record with it!

Many collectors and restorers of self-playing instruments with keyboards
seem to forget that they can also be wonderful hand-playable instruments,
mainly because few of said collectors are actually musicians who are able
to play the instrument by hand and thus appreciate some of its finer
qualities.

In fact, one of the very best upright pianos I have ever played was
a Peerless "Arcadian" orchestrion.  Another one was an Estey player
piano, not a reproducer or anything but a pumper player.  It was a very
solid piano, very finely-restored and had a wonderful tone.  It was
also terrific as a player piano.  I am still sorry that I never learned
the name of the owner or the restorer of this piano.

I agree with Robbie Rhodes that it would be silly to buy a nearly
identical intact piano to transfer the player action to yours, but
I don't think it would be silly to buy said piano, remove the player
action, measure it, and make an exact replica action to go in your
piano (replacing the original action back in its proper piano, of
course).

Since you are out of room you could then sell one or both restored
pianos.  You could even save all the plans and patterns you made to
copy to anyone else who finds a similar gutted piano.

Now you can call me overly-idealistic and impractical, but I just think
its the right thing to do.  You could also bring up the age-old question
of monetary value, but really, why do so many people care about that?
What are we doing this for in the first place, anyway?

The real reason anyone collects these things is because they neat in
and of themselves and make them happy.  A true collector learns to tune
out the naysayers who love to tell them how crappy their piano is (even
if it's restored as originally built), how worthless it is, and how
they should throw it out and buy one that is more valuable.  Usually,
the people saying these things are dealers themselves who want to sell
you the "more valuable" piano.  In reality, the only true value, that
stays relatively constant no matter what the money market does, is how
much it means to you, yourself, the person who you think should get the
piano after you (and wants it) and nobody else.

You have to really care about it, put a lot of work into it and don't
let it sit out there rotting in the barn.  If you have a hundred player
pianos that you don't want to throw away, then just add on
climate-controlled rooms to your house!  Don't laugh; many "rich
collectors" have already done this, the only difference being that they
have slightly different things called "orchestrions" and "fairgound
organs" that are "more valuable"!

So then, why do you still insist on keeping these hundred player pianos
and not throwing them away and getting a bunch of "orchestrions" and
"fairground organs" that are more valuable?  Because, let's face it:
you don't really care for the latter; you might like one of each but
your real love is the foot-pumped player pianos (or reproducing pianos,
or reed organs, or...).  If you really liked the big organs and
orchestrions, then you'd have been collecting them from day one, or
at least trying to.  There are many collectors who are like this.

Don't let people make fun of you because of what you like!  They are
the ones whose ears are not finely-attuned enough to hear the differences
between the different pianos...  Why do you have one of this make and
then one of that?  You know that each offers something the others
don't.  Perhaps the differences between them are not as much as between
two different fairground organs, but that doesn't stop them being
meaningful to you.

I think all the people throwing out player pianos are the ones that are
hurting this hobby.  Why deprive others of something they want?  These
people who want these things are out there, you just have to find them.

Sometimes there are people who would really want a cool old upright
piano, but they don't know where to find one, or at least one in good
shape.  This is mainly because relatively few upright pianos have been
truly restored, in comparison to grand pianos.

Upright pianos seem to be a "proving ground" for budding restorers,
hacks, and know-it-alls.  They rarely are given a full honest
restoration unless they happen to have fancy art glass and/or are
stuffed chockablock full of extra instrument "goodies" and/or fancy
pneumatic "reproducing" equipment, and/or have a "famous" name on the
plate and fallboard.

Most fully-restored upright pianos seem to be part of "orchestrions"
and/or "reproducing" pianos which are often owned by collectors who are
not necessarily musicians.  This in itself is not a bad thing (some of
these collectors are very decent, warm-hearted and well-meaning
people).

However, the relative lack of simple upright pianos and player pianos
that are nicely restored in homes of simple, musical people, means that
these instruments do not get as good a reputation as they deserve.
This is partly because the piano pundits who write books on these
things either did not get to see, feel, and play a fully-restored
upright piano at the time they wrote the book, or because they already
had their own bias against them which they managed to inflict upon
readers through their books.

Occasionally, someone who is more empathetic and balanced (such as Art
Reblitz) manages to write a couple good books on pianos, but this isn't
always enough to help the case.

Somewhere, somehow, people got the impression that a grand piano is
inherently superior to an upright piano, and that anyone who likes an
upright piano for itself should be laughed at (or at least, feel some
kind of guilt in this).  None of these haters seem to be able to explain
why so many upright pianos exist in the first place except the rather
feeble excuse of them being "cheaper" for the average person to afford,
or take up "less space" or something.

It's true they take up less floor space and are often more affordable,
but that still doesn't explain why fine companies such as Steinway,
Mathushek, Weber, Adam Schaaf, Mason and Hamlin, Ivers and Pond, etc.
etc.  went to great lengths to come up with their own individual kinds
of upright piano, and made upright pianos with fancy carved art cases,
semi-art cases, upright pianos that were very large and heavy, etc.
etc.  In many cases, some of these large uprights actually cost more
than a grand!

If an upright piano is so inherently bad, why would the companies
bother building large and fancy ones like these?  It doesn't make
sense, so say the piano pundits.

Actually, it does make sense.  Upright pianos have their own kind of
action that is different than a grand, and the layout of parts, the
relationship of the hammers and dampers to the strings and the
soundboard, is different than in a grand.  They also have their own
sound.

The finest upright in the world can never sound like the finest grand,
but by the same token, the finest grand in the world can never sound
like the finest upright.  They are two different sound-categories with
two different characteristics.

Today there are a few top-quality piano restorers who are genuinely
enthusiastic and willing to tackle uprights, and toil ceaselessly until
perfection.  Also, there are a few owners who know what they like and
are willing to give these restorers business.  It is good these people
are out there.  It is not so good that there is still this attitude
about junking upright pianos, even really fine ones.

Maybe I am seeing things, but I seem to see more crappy tiny grands
sold new and restored, than I do large fine-quality uprights saved and
restored.  That doesn't seem right to me.

It would be great if what has happened with theatre pipe organs will
happen with upright pianos - namely, after decades of being laughed at
and scorned by the long-hairs (who prefer, respectively, classical pipe
organs and grand pianos), they come around and finally realize that
though they are different, they are equally valid.

Andrew Barrett - who, by the way, also likes orchestrions, fairground
organs, reproducing pianos, etc.