2008-05-11

The Greatest Player Piano in the World!

When I was a wee-lad (16 years old actually) my Mom and I bought an old 1910 Aeolian Grand Upright Piano for $450.00 at a garage sale. It barely worked. Over a two year period I rebuilt the insides with the help of my neighbor Ken Woodworth who owned a piano store in Santa Ana, CA. He bought all of the supplies for me!

I taught myself to play ragtime on that piano by slowing down the playback and studying the keys. (I also went to Disneyland each weekend to watch Rod Miller play. In that case, I was watching his fingering but upside down and backwards, since I was looking over the top of the piano.)

The outside of the piano had been painted puke green/yellow. When I moved out from my parents house I sold the Piano to my friend Jeff Rhoads. He stripped off the puke-paint and refinished the piano. He later sold it to a friend of his in Oregon, where it lives today.

Ahh.... that piano had a really smooth action.

Jeff found a picture of the piano for me - the only picture I have:

DrStephenCW



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2 comments:

  1. This is sweet. Do you regret selling it? There are a few objects in my life like this--whose true value only becomes apparent in retrospect!

    BTW, thanks for the starred item links...I didn't notice this list before... /jack

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  2. I only "sort of" regret selling it. It weighs a ton, needs tuning, and takes up a lot of space. So there was plenty of downside to it. But it did have a very sweet action, which is hard to find. And of course it played Piano Rolls. I think I'm happy with a picture of it.

    There are so many link managing tools now I'm sure I'll have trouble maintaining the "star" status. *Sigh*. Anyway, you're welcome.

    -- Stephen

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