For sale for $1,500: A complete Tel-Electric 65-note player system,
as removed from a piano.  Includes all the parts necessary to install
it in an upright piano, except for the pull wires that go from the note
magnets to the keys.  These are custom cut to fit the installation, so
the previous owner did not save them.

The only modifications needed to the piano are drilling the pull wire
holes in the keybed and an exit hole in the case bottom or soundboard
for the connecting cable.  Special screw eyes are screwed into the
bottom of each of the playing keys for the pull wires.

Included are the console (roll player), note magnet bank, pedal
magnets, motor-generator, key screw eyes, and miscellaneous parts.
The console is partly disassembled.  Also includes a spare console
for parts and 50 rolls.  Additional rolls are available separately.
Extensive Tel-Electric documentation, roll catalog and historical
information are found in Volume 6 of the Billings Rollography,
available on disc from AMICA.

Tel-Electric players and rolls were made from 1907 to 1917.  World War
1 put an end to their operation, as the factory was converted for war
material production, and brass for the rolls was no longer available.
Perhaps 10,000 player systems were made in that time, but most were
scrapped after the company stopped producing rolls and providing
servicing.  Few magnet banks survive, as they were mounted under the
keybed and interfered somewhat with people playing the piano.  Consoles
are found in abundance, as they were easily stored in basements and
attics.  Many of the rolls were lost to scrap drives for their brass,
but a surprising number still survive.  As many as 8,000 titles may
have been produced in the 10 years of the company's existence.  We have
about 1,000 titles in our collection.

Bob Billings
Reno, Nevada
tel.: 1-775-853-4659
perforator@sbcglobal.net.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]