Pianola Piano re-build 2015

Again, on this piano, after re-building the piano action and keyboard, I started work on the pianola mechanism and designing of a midi kit. Finally, the piano was cleaned, raised pitch to standard A440 Hz in several tunings, and fine tuned.

This project had to be completed by December and returned to the client before Christmas day! I received the piano in mid October and started work immediately, with most of the work done during the night hours.

Experience already gained from previous similar projects, helped a lot! The upper part of the pianola was removed on the owner`s wish. So, it was relatively easy to fit the solenoid rack. This piano has 89 solenoids, divided in to two racks, with one solenoid for controlling the sustain mechanism. The bellows where also removed and stored making enough space to fit all the extra hardware.

This time a dedicated touch screen PC was used and now forms part of the system.

This midi controlled player piano can control all notes on or off without dynamic control as is normal in pianola technology. Yet, the results are still impressive. An installed sound system completes the orchestration. Of course all synthesized instruments have dynamics and therefore positively shadows part of the missing piano dynamics.

Like the 2013 conversion, I took this project for hobby and educational purposes, combining skills in piano technology, electronics and pneumatic technology experience, gained through several acoustic pianos rebuilding, pipe organ and automated piano re-buildings.

Here, I am testing the almost complete player piano with two fast and demanding classical performances.

Enjoy!

Kenneth