Customer Reviews

Player Piano: Servicing and Rebuilding

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I never thought such a book would exist! Thanks to the Internet and Amazon.com I found this book! For years our family has owned a large Weber mechanical orchestra built in the Black Forest of Germany. It sat long silent in the ballroom of our family's hotel. No one had any ideas on how best to fix our instrument. Then a friend suggested the Internet and Amazon.com. This book opened the door to restoring this machine. The orchestrion now sounds wonderful. Thanks Amazon and Art Reblitz!

A must-read for any player-piano owner. Even if you don't intend to do restoration work yourself, you'll find this book useful, informative and just plain fun! Lots of illustrations and interesting historical information!

.
In a world of dumbed-down "hot to do it" books that simply tell you to hire an expert, this book is a breath of fresh air. This is the highly technical stuff that people like Audels wrote in the 1930's before America turned stupid.

Even if you're all thumbs, this will tell you what to look out for when hiring someone. If you have the skill, this will tell you the right way to do the job, just as it was done 80 years ago.

A fine resource written by a real gentlemen who is a purist in the field. If you own any instrument that plays itself, this book is a MUST!

I'm very happy with this book. It's all expected and more.

It covers everything from basic cleaning and minor repairs to an absolute complete rebuild of ever component imaginable for spinets, uprights, and grand pianos. The author explains precisely how each part of a piano action works and how to properly regulate them. Moreover it also has two chapters on tuning; the first covers the theory of tuning while the second covers the actual tuning process along with exercises that teach each step of the process. It's well worth its price.

This is an essential reference of player piano servicing. Very technical at points, nonetheless, it offers valuable tips for the novice do-it-yourselfer as well as for the professional restorer seeking advice. Hundreds of modern and period photos from rare service manuals enhance this book. The writing style is very clear and easy to follow.

The only negative, for me, is that it has not been updated since the 1980's. The advent of computerized solenoid player systems, and their potential for being installed on antique players, is barely covered. I would have also covered roll scanning and restoration more thoroughly.

Even if you never open your player, this book provides valuable insight into the inner workings of this most fascinating mechanical technology and helps you to appreciate the art and craft of piano rebuilding.

This book is great for helping with your own piano. Our player is so old that people don't have any idea or parts to fix it. This book gives us some ideas on how to do it ourselves.

This is the #1 book to own if you care about understanding how your player piano works and if you want to know how to service it. It is a classic!

If you want to rebuild a player piano, this is where to start.

Have had an interesting time redoing our player - great addition to our library - helpful and informative directions for my 'handy' husband! We'll see!!

This is a very complete publications but a bit overwhelming for an amateur who was looking for a quick fix of a leaky bellows. This is definitely a book for the professional or piano professional who is trying to learn about player piano repair.