Player Piano Revival Episode 18: Revived and Ready for Music!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 31 июл 2024
- #nobodysperfect
Thanks so much for being here! It means a lot me.
If you'd like to further support my work, contributions can be made here.
www.paypal.com/donate/?busine...
Want to collaborate?
Write to nateoutsidethevacuum@gmail.com
Music: QRS 10-646 I Will Survive, QRS The Charleston, QRS 10-541 The Hustle played on a REVIVED 1917 Haddorf upright player piano. 
Наука
This player piano is now for sale. You can find the listing here.
www.ebay.com/itm/404604124151
It was a difficult decision to make. But!
All funds from the sale will go towards the acquisition of an exhibition space for a restored player piano, Fotoplayer, and electric piano.
Thanks for looking!
Nate
This was one of the most satisfying endings to a project that I've ever seen out here on RUclips. You have an incredible talent and it has been a joy to watch this series, can't wait to see what you do next!
Wow, thank you Steve! That's reassuring. This series has been a wild ride for me. Thanks for tagging along.
A very well-deserved victory lap Nate. Congratulations!
Thanks, Pal! I'm very happy with how the piano turned out. As always I learned so much along the way. Now I'm itching to try new things on the next one!
Incredibly underrated channel. Thanks for everything and I hope the exhibition goes well when it arrives. You deserve so many more views.
Thank you, Ben! It's been really rewarding watching my audience grow since I started last Fall.
We’re so incredibly proud of you. We had NO idea about the intricacies of your work-not to mention your editing skills. Well done, Nate. This has been so entertaining. Thank you!
Hey! Thank you (all) for cheering me on. I wouldn't be where I am today without you folks! It means so much to have you along for the ride.
It was very exciting to be part of the many work steps. Thanks a lot for this!😃
I'm looking forward to the sequel with the American Photoplayer.
I love Joe Rinaudo's RUclips videos with his photo player. That leaves you wanting more.
Until then I wish you all the best!👋🏼😊
I'm glad you found them worthwhile, thanks for being here!
Yes, Joe has been a huge inspiration to me. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a photoplayer project here!
Fabulous video series. I've shown episodes with non-player piano owners and they have been fascinated. Thanks for keeping this niche of history alive. Can't wait for more Fotoplayer videos. No pressure...
Thank you for helping to spread the word! A Fotoplayer series is in the works.
Much respect for your patience and craftmanship from Holland !!
What a top endresult!
Hello! It was a fun project and I'm happy with how it turned out, thank you!
My mother (late 80's) has an old player piano that I never saw actually work as a player. She used to teach piano lessons on it as I was growing up. It is from around the 1920's (I found this out later on), and recently my mother expressed an interest in having it work again, but said she couldn't believe anyone still repaired them. A little googling around, and I found someone who restores them, and their shop was less than 50 miles away!! We called him and had him come to her place to look it over. He had the thing disassembled in about 10 minutes!! I was SO impressed with his knowledge of this piano that he just saw for the first time. He took his time, explained how everything works together to make the piano a player piano. After 1 hour he had it reassembled, and promised to send us a quote for a possible restoration. Before the end of the day we had the quote. It wasn't cheap (but I am a FIRM believer in you get what you pay for.) Needless to say we signed up to have him do the restoration work. The ONLY bummer is that he is so busy with restorations that it will be several years until he can get to it. But we are SO excited that he is going to be doing the work. I then found he had all sorts of restoration videos on RUclips (which I did NOT know until after we signed up for the work) and I was up until 1:00 AM watching them they were so interesting!! They also detail the sheer amount of work and knowledge this artisan has about player piano restoration, and how much he actually "cares" about the piano and it's history. I am so excited he will be doing our restoration, I just wish time could go faster so my mother and I can see the results sooner!! :) Thank you Nate for restoring these piano's and sharing all your videos online!!
Hi Paul! Thank you! It'll be worth the wait :)
Had this been the only video it would still have been an extraordinary piece of work and entertainment. Thanks for all your very remarkable efforts Nate. And thanks for inviting us along; I feel uplifted too. God bless you mate.
Hey again, Mark. This video certainly took the longest to out together, but it was fun to review all the past footage and realize how far we've come. Thanks for being along on the journey!
What a great conclusion to the series and this piano really shines in every way now, WOW! Please keep us updated on the exhibit, it is needed! I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode and your humor. You give me hope for the future of the hobby. - With great thanks, Erik
Hi Erik! Thank you! Yes, I will definitely give an update when the time comes!
I have just purchased a 1920 Broadwood player piano, and to be honest it is in really good condition. It cost me £10 as the owner wanted it to go to a good home and it had been in her life since she was 4, 50 years ago. I am currently renovating the action and will hopefully have it up and running in the next month. The cabinet is chipped and worn and this will be my biggest learning curve, new woodworking skills. Thank you for your channel and videos, they have given me the confidence to attempt this. And yes I have bought the books and I am enjoying learning the amazing history of these fascinating musical machines.
Enjoy your project!
I have throughly enjoyed the restoration! Looking forward to many more videos along these lines!
I must say I did not expect disco but I enjoyed it!
I'm glad you liked it! Wasn't sure how the disco would land. I do have another series in the works, stay tuned!
I have watched all your videos now and I’m extremely excited to hear you are thinking about an exhibition for these marvels of engineering. I hope that with any luck, your machines may end up in a museum exhibit one day 🎉🎉🎉
That's my hope! I intend to put together a "living exhibit". Nothing too fancy, but something cleaner than my shop would be nice!
I got sucked into watching all of these thanks to a post on Reddit.
I had no idea these machines ran entirely on air pressure. All of the mechanisms are incredible to create a vacuum, even out the differences in pressure created by pumping, which allowed an air motor to run smoothly, not to mention how the music roll stayed centered, or all the machining of the wooden chambers and valves. It's an industrial technology that developed and matured to an impressive degree with a set of materials I don't see today (SO much felt, as well as leather, wood, and hide glue) and it has now just disappeared.
This is like a more subtle (but also intricate) version of Hand Tool Rescue. On his channel you see how all of these domestic tools and technologies worked that have since disappeared because they were, like, deadly and insane. This is learning how something worked which has since disappeared just because of electricity and plastic.
Thanks so much for all your work explaining these components, how they work, how you fix them, and putting that together in really well made videos.
They were really pushing the materials to their limits with this technology! I'm thankful we can get modern substitutes so these instruments can still be enjoyed.
This has been an absolute joy to watch. Thank you so much for taking us along on the ride. I hope you consider doing more content in the future.
Thank you! Yes, I have another project in the works.
Amazing job on this Player piano, your video’s make it look so easy but it needs a lot of skill and craftmanship to get it done (and perhaps a stack of old players for parts)
I’ve enjoyed your “show” and I hope that there is more to come.
Greetings from Fryslân.
Thank you! Yes I did leave a lot of steps out of the videos but hope I got the point across.
There is more to come! Stay tuned.
I binge watched this whole series today. I am a bit bleary eyed, but I really loved it. Such interesting and complex work so well carried out--and with humor. And it really brings a smile to see this fine old machine brought back to life instead of going to a landfill or burn pile as so many thousands like it have.Good job!!!!
The music makes it all worthwhile. Thanks for taking the time to watch!
A perfect finale-with confetti punchings no less!
Would you consider a new series of shorts? Each short could hi-light an indispensable “must have” tool of the piano workshop. Something to think about…if you want to…no pressure.
Hey there! I've tried to highlight interesting tools throughout this series, but I'll try to include more of that in coming seasons. Thanks for watching and for your feedback.
I bet it will sound great
You have every right to be overjoyed sir! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work, thanks for sharing with all of us out here! Cheers!
Hey, thank you! More to come. I'm grateful to have you cheering me on.
Fantastic, Nate. Thanks for sharing with us.
I really am honored to have such an audience. Thanks again for the inspiration to take the YT plunge.
Beautiful job! You put so much time and effort into this. I wish I had the time and patience to rebuild my player. I don’t think I could do it. Thanks for all the videos! They were so much fun to watch. You should be very proud of yourself and the great gift you have. Thanks again my friend.
Thanks so much for the recognition. They are daunting projects for sure, but the excitement of that first test fire makes it all worth it.
Fantastic job, Nate! I enjoy your honesty, your creativity, and humor. Thank you for creating a whole new level of enjoyment for me and many, many others.
Hi Greg! Thanks for all your encouragement along the way! I really appreciate it.
Beautiful job Nate. Thank you very much for sharing such a fascinating project.
Thank you for watching! Overall I'm very happy with how the project turned out.
Thank you for making this series. Well done.
It was a passion project for sure, just like the piano I guess! Thanks again for all your time, effort and creativity with that beautiful control label.
Your excitement and giddiness when the piano started up was palpable. I've so enjoyed being on this journey with you! Looking forward to your fotoplayer in the future...though I'd imagine you'll want a break to recover!
It gets me every time!
Yes, I am tired out after this series. Hopefully I'll be back at it in a week or so.
I've enjoyed this series so much, and also learned loads from it. The least I can do is shout you a coffee using that conveniently placed link in the description haha. I'm also turning on that notification bell incase you produce another series, would love to see a fotoplayer restored!
Very kind of you! I'm glad to hear you learned lots along the way. Yes, a Fotoplayer is next!
What an amazing series! The complexities of these instruments is amazing. I have a suggestion regarding the leather valve materials. When you bubble tested silicone, there were some bubbles. This could be due to silicone being very permeable to air. You can't make a silicone balloon or inner tube. The silicone molecule is spring shaped and easily deforms. The ideal material would be butyl rubber which is used to make inner tubes. Also this may be helpful. One of the most basic properties of any rubber is its hardness, measured with a Durometer using the Shore A scale with 0 being a liquid and 100 being a brick. Most common values are 30, 40, 50 and 60. 60 is typical of spark plug boots. 30 or 40 for gaskets. If there is a rubber company in your area, you could see if they wouldn't mind measuring the durometer of some leather seals and the silicone ones you used. An old leather seal will be harder than a new one due to oxidation. Think pencil eraser. Silicone is inherently resistant to oxidation. Butyl rubber relies on additives, which could possibly be corrosive to other components over time. Just my two cents. I too am analytical and the more information the better. Thanks for such an enjoyable bunch of videos. We had a player ihn the basement in t he 1950"s and I can't count the hours I spent pushing those pedals. Brough back a lot of memories.
Thank you for sharing your insights and taking the time to comment!
Thanks for sharing all the work needed to get a player piano working again! My grandmother bought an Aeolian player piano in the 1920's. I remember messing with it when I was a kid - learning how to pedal, loading the reel, etc, and the sounds of this piano operating bring back all those childhood memories. As a young teenager, I remember hearing that it didn't work well because of disintegrating rubber tubing, and being curious what it would take to repair. The piano's long gone, and I've got plenty of other projects that I'd do before a player piano restoration, but I really enjoyed seeing what would be needed to restore a player piano.
Thank you! This was definitely a passion project.
I loved this series, looking forward to next season!
Thank you Dan! I learned so much doing this first series. Glad I made it out alive!
So nice to see after 17 episodes, and you in your nicest suspenders. I can't believe you ended with The Hustle, but chacun à son goût. When my kids were growing up we would hum The Hustle (do do do...) when cleaning up after dinner. When we got to the only line with words we would shout "Do the dishes!"
Gesundheit! Thanks for sticking with me anyway!
Nice work, it sounds and looks great. You need a magnet to pick up all shims or right sorry plastic! 😂
Thank you for the hours of entertainment, and bringing this old player back to life. 👏👏👏👏
Hi there! Thank you for being here week after week for the journey.
It took a bit of time to vacuum up my mess. It was worth it though!
@@nateoutsidethevacuum It sure was worth it. 😘👌😂😂
@DC Allan Yes it was!
This was so fascinating to watch! Thank you, and I hope you continue chronicling your projects.
Thanks, Dee! I do indeed have a "Season 2" in the works.
Thanks so much Nate! You are truly an inspiration to me as I struggle with my own player piano restoration project. I greatly enjoyed and learned from your experience.
I'm glad I could inadvertently help with your project!
Your videos on the restoration of this player piano have been amazing. I own 2 player pianos in my garage that need work & one that was a player at one time but someone quite viciously removed all of the player parts, however the piano is an excellent musical instrument. I'm going to keep collecting until my garage is full.
Ty again for the videos.
Thanks for watching!
Great work Nate! Splendid series documenting the process, you've really got a knack for it.
That means a lot coming from you! Thank you. I've learned so much along the way, and I'm still just getting started.
Beautiful workmanship Nate what a pleasure to resurrect an old treasure, must be proud of it. Jim from AUSTRALIA. 😊❤
Thanks so much, Jim! Yes, I'm happy with how it all came together.
Bravo 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Thanks for sticking with me, Paul!
I am so happy to see the piano come to life again, amazing job! It's been wonderful to watch your videos and they made my day every time they came out. I hope to see my piano/maybe future fotoplayer turn out as well as your piano. I've learned a lot from this journey, thank you for all of this!
Thank you for being here all along! Enjoy your project!
@@nateoutsidethevacuum I will! I’m shipping the piano to the shop on Tuesday!
@@masklavier that's great news!
Congratulations Nate, watching this unfold has been an absolute joy
I'm really glad to hear that, thank you!
WOW! A player piano that doesn't sound like a hideous beast. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks! This is what makes it all worth it.
Great job Nate! And thanks for the laughs.
Thank you for following along!
What a lovely finish to a brilliant project. Congratulations!
Thanks, Pal! It was all so worth it.
What an absolute fantastic series. One of the most entertaining here on RUclips. As one who loves music, musical instruments, piano, wood working and mechanical tinkering, I would absolutely love to do something like this. Thank you Nate for the hours of entertainment and best wishes.
Thank you so much! Sounds like a player piano project might be a good fit for you!
A great series. I enjoyed watching each step of the process. Many thanks and all best wishes from Honolulu, Hawai'i.
Wow! I'm glad you enjoyed it, I was worried some steps were simply too dull to show, but here we are!
This series was awesome to watch. It feels awesome that you brought back a piece of history to life!!! I admire people like you!!!! 😀
Thanks so much! It was all worth the effort.
It went out with a bang! Well done, till next time
If you're going to make a mess, make a big one! Thank you.
Èxcellent pieces of machinery absolutely amazing what amount of work has to be done to put these machines into full working order ive always liked these since i was very young still do
Thanks so much for this series Nate - I just binge watched the entire series. We have just been given a old german player piano that has some....issues. This certainly gives me some insight in how to begin.
Good luck! And thanks for watching.
Really enjoyed this antique's path to being operational again! I gotta say you are a very silly human and that's absolutely fine, the goofy humor is charming in its way. (And I think you're a walking "dad joke machine" - nothin' wrong with that.) Lovely and thoroughly meticulous work!
That makes my day! Thank you.
Thank you Nate for this great series. Only tonight have I finally completed watching this great series _(oh, and all your other videos)_ and it was superb experience. Personally I would love to see a video with your critique on your collection of rolls - history of them, your favorites and why and anything else related to their manufacture of any 'errors' perhaps, it would be fascinating. Stay well and thanks again for your efforts in giving these 'living' instruments another lease on life! (p.s. It's OK, I love Disco so no convincing required here, no pressure! 🕺)
Wow! Big thanks to you for staying glued!
Your suggestion about taking a Roll Call on my music library might be a good fit for a livestream?
@@nateoutsidethevacuum Thanks for the reply! Yes, that's a great idea, perhaps sampling some rolls during the stream as well. I'll be there!! (even if the time zone here in Australia will be slightly horrendous😵💫).
nice one man, congratulations on a great result and enjoy the fruits of your labour!
Hey there, thank you for being here for the wild ride! I can't wait to get the piano into a place more conducive to sharing it (and with better accoustics)!
Thanks for the wonderfully entertaining videos that have given me hope with my player piano project. Can't wait to see what you do next!
P.S. I Love disco :)
I'm glad I could empower you! Enjoy your project.
Glad you love Disco too!
This has been one hell of a journey. Well done.
It sure has, thank you for being here!
@@nateoutsidethevacuum Have enjoyed every moment Nate, including the terrible jokes. Actually, *especially* the terrible jokes. Thank you for documenting this so completely and entertainingly for us all. I've found this whole series absolutely fascinating and have been wowed by the intricacy, complexity, and variety of the work you do!
@@kinggimped terrible has never felt so good. Thank you!
People wonder why a full restoration of a player piano is so involved, and the resulting cost (if you don’t do it yourself), and hopefully these videos will go a long way in illuminating this subject. These instruments were built in pieces by dozens or hundreds of specialist workers in the piano and player action factories, which enabled original costs to be kept down enough for the pianos to be relatively affordable when new (although definitely not cheap!). Unless someone starts a “restoration factory” to divide the workload, this will still be the case with restorations today (one or a few people redoing the original factory work of dozens of people). That is not to put people off restoration; as we can see it can be totally worthwhile!
What they said! Congratulations! 😊
Thank you for being here from the start!
@@nateoutsidethevacuum you have videos on your photo player?
@@daveallan3152 I will be creating some in the coming months.
Great series of videos and what a great choice of songs for the finale.
Thank you! Early on in the series I had them in mind as a joke, but as things developed it became clear they were the right choice.
Thank you for this excellent series. It was especially meaningful to me since my player has the identical Autopiano deluxe action. I just
wish I could have had the benefit of your videos thirty years ago when I restored it.
Thank you for sharing that. I can relate: the player piano my grandparents owned had this very same action as well! I guess now you could say I'm brand loyal. What make of piano is yours in?
@@nateoutsidethevacuum My Autopiano action (s/n 154298) is in a 1922 Cunningham piano out of Philadelphia.
@@dennismedvee8621 very nice!
Incredible work !
Yet fascinating and entertaining :)
Cheers mate.
Thank you!
Amazing series, thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for watching! It was fun to do.
BRAVO!!!
Thank you for watching!
Awesome series!
Thank you! It was quite the pet project.
I'm sure you have seen one of these before. I knew a guy who had a device that made any regular piano into a player piano.
I don't remember the name or make. It was basically a lower section of a wooden box on wheels which had the running mechanism and held the roll, then there was an upper section which sat over the keyboard of a regular piano this had "fingers" that play the keyboard. I never saw it running but I think it was clockwork rather than pedal powered.
Yes, they are commonly referred to as a "push-up player".
This is so much fun to watch and listen to! Is it possible to duplicate vintage piano roles from the 20's and 30's so that the life of the original performances can be extended? Does anyone do that?
Anything is possible! Yes, there are people who make their own rolls.
Just curious, looking at your roll cabinet at the beginning, how many rolls do you roughly own? Thousands? They seem to multiply in my experience! Unfortunately, Hawaiian rolls are the first to repopulate! Such excellent work and entertaining videos! Always makes me realize how I pump my players compared to your fresh restoration! Look forward to your future uploads.
I have less than a thousand, which is more than enough for me!
Thanks for watching.
2:29 😂❤️
Nate, I have watched this series a few times now, and it has inspired me to go out and restore a player myself, so for this thank you! I’m also curious, I really love the cabinets you have for storing the rolls, have you restored them as well?
I'm glad you left feeling inspired! Enjoy your project.
The roll cabinets were a wardrobe in a former life. I cut them down (depth) and a friend made the cubby inserts.
Sounds amazing! great work. I'm curious, how does it make the keys depress when playing itself? I got the action on mine working but didn't start on any bellows or player stuff yet, but it looked to me as though they keys would not move when it played. I must be missing something.
The player unit lifts the piano action separately from the keys. When this happens, the weight of the key is no longer held down by the piano action, and the key drops sympathetically.
Some makers had keylocks that activated when the player was in use (Kimball is one example) so the keys would remain stationary when a roll was played.
@@nateoutsidethevacuum thanks so much! That makes perfect sense. Next winter i'm hoping to begin work on the player portion of my wife's heirloom piano (1925 Henkelman from NYC). Action is working again though so it can be played again. I'll be rewatching this series for sure, thanks for all your work making it!
Nate explained it perfectly. However here is a fun fact: most European (British, German, French) player pianos have the piano keys weighted in the traditional way (in back, to stay up except when being depressed by the fingers), so these pianos very seldom have moving keys while playing automatically (except for some early pre-1914 instruments where the stack is under the keyboard and pushes up on the backs of the keys), although this does mean the piano retains more of a “concert touch” for hand playing. Most USA player pianos have the keys very slightly weighted in FRONT, however, so when the piano action is lifted, they drop down for the “ghost piano” effect. This is mostly true of player uprights from the USA; player grands have concert key weighting and the stack pushing up on the backs of the keys (in most cases).
We’ve come a long way!
Thanks for being here from the start!
AUTOPIANO - THE BEST!!!!
I'd say so!