Luke Myers has run into the sad current state of the piano market.  Sad
to say, there is now a _very_  limited market for _any_ piano.  Pianos
are being sent to the dumps, even players.  I have one player upright
I saved from that fate and one non-player spinet (that, in hindsight,
I should have let go!).

And yes, listing a stripped-out player piano as "a player piano" is
misleading!  Although right now I have enough parts on hand that, if
the piano scale is right, I could put a player back into an empty
piano.  Why do I have these?  To save them from going to the dump!
Maybe I should call my storage building "The Dump"? :)

The interesting thing I'm running into nowadays are players that were
rebuilt and now need at least _some_ rebuilding.  I started puzzling
this and realized that the rebuilds were in the 1960s to 1970s on
pianos made in the 1920s (mostly, but some in the 1910s), when they
were 40 to 50 years old, and the rebuilds are now around 45 years old!

Hmm, okay, I've lived too long and am seeing at least one of my own
rebuilds coming back.  Good thing I used hide glue!  One of the pianos
I'm redoing "they" used silicone and some red leather (that has shrunk
terribly) for valve facings.  They did use zephyr skin for the pouches,
so whomever it was thought they were doing a good job.

This mess has, of course, required almost complete re-working of the
chests -- I'm doing this one out of love, no way would it be economical
to do otherwise.  I wonder if the materials I'm using will suffer the
same fate?  We try to do our best!

On the other hand, I have seen fully rebuilt players go for less than
the cost of the rebuilding; I know I posted here about my friend's
Chickering Ampico that was given to him by the elderly owner who told
him he could "cut it up for firewood as far as she was concerned."

Fortunately it is in a loving home, complete with the some 200 Ampico
rolls it came with!  It was rebuilt about 15 years ago, completely
(restrung, action work and player) and only has a few issues we are
working through together.

Luke, I know we all here at MMD wish you well on your player project,
and are willing to "give a hand" at least electronically, so you can
enjoy your self-playing piano.

By the way, the electronic players do have a place in today's world,
mostly, in my opinion, in commercial venues where they can provide
"live" music background (the ultimate Musak machine, eh?), as they
require no attention and will never tear a piano roll.  They are also
useful as a teaching aid, as (if provided) they can record a pianist's
work, live, so the pianists can hear their mistakes (notes, tempo,
pedal technique, etc.).

However, for true player piano enjoyment in the home, I agree, they are
lacking -- you can't sing along with the words as the roll goes by,
you don't get to peruse through the roll collection looking for "my
favorite" to hear (yes, I know the electronic ones have titles listed,
but a screen image is not the same!).

By the way, Luke, you are hoping to upgrade your piano by substituting
components that seem to be in better shape than yours, but I think you
will find that adapting them to your piano will take as much energy as
just rebuilding them; each maker has designed their parts to work
together, and usually they don't match up well with other makers'
parts.

Trust me, I have my childhood (well, okay, I was in college at the
time) player that has an "orphan" stack in it, as it came to me without
one (fortunately the "new" stack is a Simplex, which is a pretty
flexible design).  Others might not notice, but the roll box isn't
completely centered in the case, and the motor regulator is close, but
will slow down a little with heavy pumping, in spite of my modifying it
and adjusting it.

As I said, others probably don't even notice this, but I do!  It's now
due for a rebuild, maybe I can correct those errors this time (I've
never found an "authentic" stack for it).  Apparently my pianos
original player stack was a Lester and from what I've read, my Simplex
was a good choice for a substitute!

David Dewey