Barrel piano

[Robert Goodale]

A440A@AOL.COM wrote:

> Greetings all,
>     I just saw something I would really like to have.  It is a crank-operated
> barrell piano. It is built on its own little cart, no keys, of course, but has
> bichords for about all of its 5 octaves, and dampers half way up.  It is
> painted up like something out of a gypsy fantasy, and is in poor condition.  I
> wasn't able to really get too much of a look, but there is a large barrel with
> stubs sticking out of it that trigger some kind of mechanism that throw
> hammers at the strings.
>     The barrell is about four feet long, about 1 foot in diameter.  They want
> $1,400 for the whole thing,  Anybody know anything about these animals?
> Thanks,
> Ed Foote
> (oh lawdy, lawdy, how her eyes rolled when I told her what I seen........)

Hell, yes! These are really COOL instruments!  If you are thinking "piano", forget
it, they hardly qualify.  On the other hand it IS an instrument that shares a
fundamental technology.  You mentioned that it has dampers which is somewhat
unique.  Many of these did not.  Instead the hammers rested against the strings
when they weren't playing and thus became the dampers themselves.

I would personally LOVE to own one of these.  I almost bought one a few years ago,
it sounds like a blast to rebuild.  Any rebuild of course needs to be very careful
done so that it works/looks exactly like it did when it was new, thus preserving
it's integrity.  This can be VERY expensive, more than you might think. I have a
barrel from one of these, a different size.  I actually found it in a trash heap
about to get thrown out when a dear I used to work for was cleaning out their
warehouse.  Perfect condition too!

Let me know what you decide to do.  If you don't buy it, who knows...?

Rob Goodale, RPT
Mechanical music nut