It seems like we tend to accumulate "things" relative to whatever
business we're in.  For example, old realtors often end up with
a string of rental properties, old auto mechanics end up with a back
yard full of cars and, alas, old player piano technicians end up with
a warehouse full of old player pianos.

Through the years I've discovered that collecting pianos is a lot like
collecting elephants (dead ones).  It doesn't take too many of them to
boast about having a "big" collection and I've got one, two warehouses
full.  (My wife kicked me out of the garage years ago).  To any sane
thinking person in this economic climate, this could signal a problem.

Lately, the "R" word -- retirement -- has been creeping into my
vocabulary and last night, in the middle of the night, the whole thing
came crashing together in my mind and I found myself in a cold sweat
thinking about John Tuttle's posting, "Player Piano Disposal Cost".

What on earth am I ever going to do with all those player pianos?
This got my logically thinking male mind going and I'm confident,
in time, I'll come up with a solution.   When I do I'll let you know.

In the mean time, I'd like to add my humble opinion to the growing
number of comments regarding the demise of the player piano.  They're
not dead!  Whereas people may not be breaking the door down to buy
the things, I have to say that's where the negativity ends!

I've been in the player piano restoration business on the US West Coast
(Oregon, Washington and California) for almost 35 years and I can say
without hesitation that I've never been busier working on player
pianos!  Our piano shops are full service shops and we have, in fact,
seen some changes in the overall piano restoration business these past
few years, but on the subject of player piano restoration, it's good
news.

In thinking about this, I've made an interesting observation.  At the
present time, all but one of the player pianos we're working on comes
from "Grandpa" having the old player piano restored for the grandkids.
I hear many stories about when the grandkids come to visit and how they
sit for hours pumping away and singing along.

Take note everyone, the heart of the player piano still beats!  Perhaps
interest has simply skipped a generation.

Hmmm, now if I can just come up with some inexpensive place to store
all those player pianos until the grandkids get old enough to buy them.

Ken Marts - Ken Marts Pianos
ken440bear@aol.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]