I am a professional piano technician (more about that here), who is new to the player piano game, and to the blogosphere, for that matter!
I reside in the sleepy realm of County Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; arcadian from June to September, and rather boreal for the other two-thirds of the year.
Note: I see that the most common questions and comments are specifically regarding Willis brand pianos. Please have a look at that post here, and read through the entire post and comments first.
If you still have a question, please comment there, thanks!
Hello Ian
I just came across your website quite by accident. pianola.ca is a wonderful address.
I live in Vancouver but have wonderful memories of vacationing in your part of the world.
I am only an amateur but about 40 years ago restored a pedal electric steck duo art. 40 years ago all the parts needed for a restoration were easily available. That I’m sure is not the case today
Unfortunately my player is now beginning to see the ravages of time and because of my age no longer able to do much with it. Like almost the most player pianos today they are tragically going to end up in the dump.
That is why over the last year so I designed and built an electronic piano roll reader so that even when most of the pneumatically operated player pianos have disappeared you will still be able to play vintage music rolls in real time and listen to the music on them. The unit has a midi output so you can feed it to a computer or any electronic piano or Hi-Fi system of your choice
I am remarkably impressed about how you have recorded the details of the player restoration.
Phil Dayson
Hi Phil!
Nice to hear from you over on the left coast; I am sure I have read some of your posts on MMD over the years?
I am currently doing yet another restoration, and yes I can attest that it is difficult to source materials and parts, more so than even 5 years ago when I did the Willis restoration.
It is possible to find them, but you do have to know where to look and scrounge around!
Also yes, it is an uphill battle to keep player pianos in good order and to keep folks interested in these fascinating instruments.
Hopefully this website will make a modest contribution….although I admit I should be doing a better job of keeping the site current!
I hope to add more content over the course of the summer, stay tuned!
I was interested in your electronic roll reader, I recall reading about it last year, it’s quite inventive!
For the benefit of anyone else who may read this comment, I post a link which folks can access to see what it’s all about!
Phil Dayson’s digital roll reader (click here)
Thanks again!