Last Updated: 10/8/2008

   

"Restoring Pianolas and other self-playing pianos" by Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume. Published in 1983 by George Allen & Unwin, London. First Edition. Hard cover with dust jacket, 143 pages with 56 Plates (black-and-white photographs, with descriptions) and 50 Figures (drawings). The book measures 10 inches (25.2 cm) high by 7½ inches (19 cm) wide.

Text from the dust jacket is as follows:

"Pianos which play by themselves are today the province of electronics and computer technology. Yet half a century ago, pneumatically-played pianos such as the pianola were commonplace. And earlier still, pianos which played their music by means of a studded wooden barrel were equally popular. Indeed they were in use on the streets of our cities until a generation or two ago while no between-the-wars pub worth its beer was without its coin-operated clockwork piano.

Restoring Pianolas tells you how to give a new lease of life to these fascinating and highly collectable instruments. Written by an acknowledged world authority on mechanical music and its instruments, Restoring Pianolas is a practiccal guide to the reconditioning of barrel pianos and pneumatic pianos and includes a valuable chapter on the reproducing piano. Appendices list the makes and makers of music rolls, trade names of player pianos and who made them, and a table of serial numbers as an aid to dating the more popular makes of player piano.


CONTENTS:
List of Plates
List of Line Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
  1. Equipment for the Job
  2. Rebuilding the Barrel Piano
  3. Rebuilding the Player Piano
  4. Understanding the Reproducing Piano
  5. Player Organs and Their Overhaul
Appendix A - Music Roll Makers and Brand Names
Appendix B - List of Trade Names
Appendix C - Some Serial Numbers of Player Pianos
Bibliography
Index


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