[ Ref. 180926 MMDigest, "How Times Have Changed!" ]

I, too, look back fondly at the 1960s and '70s, but from a different
perspective.  I first saw a coin-operated piano in the summer of 1970
when my wife and I visited the Mechanical Music museum in Underground
Atlanta.  I went wild over those instruments, but I knew I'd never be
able to afford one.

A few months later I found an unrestored player piano and bought it
for $50.  I didn't know about Larry Givens' book, but a fellow engineer
in my office brought me two back issues of Popular Science magazine
(January and February, 1964) that explained how to get old player pianos
working.  With that information, and later with the Vestal Press books,
I rebuilt several players, improving my skills with each one.

I still yearned for a coin-op instrument, and I finally got a chance at
one a few years later.  An elderly friend who had a Seeburg KT passed
away, and I made a deal with the executor of his estate.  I couldn't
afford to purchase the machine outright, but he agreed that I could have
it in exchange for restoring two upright players for him, one of which
was a Duo-Art.  It took me a couple of years, but I got my KT.

The demands of my career prevented me from going to work on the KT,
so it sat in my garage, literally, for forty years.  My kids called it
"The Green Monster" because it had been painted green.  Finally, after
I retired about a year ago, I went to work on my Seeburg KT.  A few
months ago I heard it play for the first time.

I recently completed a Gallery of the best items of my collection, and
the Seeburg KT is a favorite among visitors.  My wife jokingly dubbed the
Gallery "Kermit's Folly," and it stuck.  I wouldn't change it for anything!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/shihlh1pav7lbyz/AACNzwgMaxykwK9rnd2xcID8a?dl=0

Kermit Hobbs