Here is what I have finally decided concerning the restoration of my
player piano, at its current point.

1. The player mechanism is not worth my trouble or additional time, to
do anything else on.

2. The player mechanism was already in poor condition when we got the
piano.

3. I am not going to fruitlessly try and "make" it work, which I have
been completely unsuccessful at. :(

4. I am very, very seriously thinking about gutting the piano of its
player parts, (since I put too much work into them) and selling it as
a regular piano.

5. I am dead certain that I have worked too long on it, and absolutely
do not consider the project to be of utmost importance. I had contacted
a couple player technicians in Newton, KS but both of them have too
much work to do on other mechanisms.

6. The player part had not played, previous to my owning it, for over
20 or so years.

7. On Monday I went and looked at a Wurlitzer player piano in Andover,
Kansas.  The owner of the piano told me that he had purchased it
(before he had moved) from an estate sale, and said that it definitely
did work and played the roll when he tried turning it on.  He told me,
"It _did_  play."

He had bought it originally for his daughter who was interested in
playing the piano.  He said that "she had taken about one lesson and
then stopped." Doug also said that he wanted the piano to go to a home
where it would be taken good care of, as it has a "warm place" in their
family.

The only problem with the player, that both he and I agreed on, is a
faulty cord.  He let me carefully inspect the piano.  All the keys were
tuned and the piano sounded very good, except for one note.  He is
selling the piano for $100.  It is a spinet solenoid player, and I
believe it would be very much more economical and practical to get it
and use it, than having an upright player whose mechanism doesn't even
work, and hasn't worked, for over 30 or so years.

8. I have 23 player rolls that I cannot play at all, even if I wanted
to, because the piano doesn't work.  Sometimes admitting defeat is
sweeter than victory.

9. I do not want to keep telling my friends that "I have the piano
almost ready," or something like that.  A year of working on a bad
player, and no success, is simply too long, and I will not stand for
it!

10. I have cried fairly hard, a couple times, because of my numerous
failed attempts at trying to get my player working. I figure if the
manufacturers _intended_ the player to be rebuild-able, they would
have chosen to design that part better.

11. The previous owners of my Auto-Player, had told me, before I got
it, that "it was not in very good condition."  How I wish I had heeded
them and gotten a better one at the first, instead of giving myself
pure sadness.

Here is what Mark Reinhart told me, in an email conversation:

"Some players are especially difficult and you may have one that
was simply bad luck for a first player.  Even after my many years
of experience, there are many, many players I simply will never touch
because the time is not worth the effort.  Yours may be one of those
that is just bad news."

I will have to get rid of my current player piano before I can get
a "new" and working one; my dad says he will not allow four pianos
in our house!  Therefore, I am putting out a plea for a working player
piano.  I may or may not get the Wurlitzer in Andover I mentioned above.

Luke Myers
Whitewater, Kansas
ldmyers95@gmail.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]