Wednesday, January 22, 2014

My first vintage player piano

Last week I bought a vintage Thompson player piano for $250.  Beautiful mahogany wood. Everything seems to work fine and all of the notes still ring. No cracks on the piano. The sound board looks solid. Some of the ivory keys are missing. Everything works. I was told by piano's previous owner that it hadn't been tuned up in over 50 years. Yet it sounds remarkably well for it's age despite the lack of tuning.

50 piano rolls came with the piano.  Most of the titles I don't even recognize. Some titles are downright racist and demeaning but that's how the era was like. Some minor adjustment is needed to add a slight tension to the reel to help keep the piano roll paper lined up and not crinkle along the edge. I'll figure it out on how to do that. Pumping the pedals isn't quite perfect but it works and takes a bit of doing and adjusting the playing speed.

I plan on posting some of my videos playing some ragtime pieces now that I have a real vintage player piano.