repurposing some Piano parts

[John K Jordan]

...He took the soundboard and mounted on a wall in his basement so when they had parties people could run their hands across the strings and make noise. ...

He must have saved the cast iron frame, the pin block, and the thin soundboard. Wold be quite a heavy wall hanging! Another interesting thing with such a thing is the resonance from it. I have a grand piano and kids can get their faces very close to the strings. I hold down the sustain pedal and have them sing a note or even scream into the piano. The resonance of the nodes of many individual strings creates a wonderful "echo"!

I also had an old player piano I carried from our family home in PA to TN. The mechanism didn't work so I spent months to rebuild the mechanism, all the bellows, new hammers, new bass strings, felts, etc. (I had a piano technician friend advise and help with restringing.) The mechanical/vacuum technology in those old machines is amazing. We used that piano for years, passed it around a while, and it ended up at my oldest son's place in SC. We have boxes of paper rolls for it, some new, some 100 years old, all play well. Good fun!

JKJ

[Wade Lippman]

I also had an old player piano I carried from our family home in PA to TN. The mechanism didn't work so I spent months to rebuild the mechanism, all the bellows, new hammers, new bass strings, felts, etc. (I had a piano technician friend advise and help with restringing.) The mechanical/vacuum technology in those old machines is amazing. We used that piano for years, passed it around a while, and it ended up at my oldest son's place in SC. We have boxes of paper rolls for it, some new, some 100 years old, all play well. Good fun!

JKJ

When I bought my house there was a player piano in the basement. The seller explained how it was vital to keep the dehumidifier running next to it. When I couldn't sell it in a year, the harp went to a boat mooring. The music rolls fetched a couple hundred though.

[Ernie Miller]

You could even go all out and use some of the wood to make a music box shaped like a miniature piano, I have intentions of doing that myself making a miniature copy of my Baldwin grand piano. Maybe 35 years ago I bought an extended-play music box movement from the SF Music Box Co for this - just need to do it before I get too old for the shop!

JKJ

I did exactly that - a music box shaped like a Steinway grand. Great project, but very time consuming. The music plays when you push down on the keys, and stops when you lift your fingers off the keys.

IMG_0162.jpg

[John K Jordan]

Incredible craftsmanship!

This is the movement I have, a Reuge 72 note:

music_box_movement_Reuge.jpg

I understand Reuge no longer sells these except as complete music boxes (apparently for rich people!). I think I paid close to $500 for it at the time but the best price I see today is $1700 on ebay. Zounds. I am unworthy.
This one has Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

[Warren Lake]

Ernie is that the apartment size grand piano?

Excellent work you did there, I sent it to my friend but likely should not have