I have recently purchased a player piano.  Just by chance, and I'm not
sure whether I can describe it as luck or not, it turns out to have the
Kastonome system.  It's actually a Rachals piano.

I have dismantled it and inspected it, and a few problems are immediately
obvious.  Firstly, the piano mechanism is sticky: the hammers don't
return correctly.  It either needs freeing or re-centering.  Secondly,
many of the bridle tapes are broken.  Thirdly, the hammer butt springs
are missing.  All this before attacking the player mechanism.

The pipes on the tracker bar are hard and brittle and some are missing
and all will need replacing, quite a task when there are 240 odd of
them!  The bellows on the air motor are split.  The pneumatics look
okay from first inspection and I haven't dared look at the valve stack.
It's a beautiful piece of history and I'm determined to make it work
again, hopefully.

Does anyone know of a similar working player piano in the UK?  A source
for Kastonome rolls would be great if anyone knows of one.

Paul Booker

 [ MMD articles about the Kastner Kastonome piano are indexed at
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/K/kastner.html 
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/K/kastonome.html 
 [ -- Robbie