Arthur A. Reblitz

This book contains over four hundred fifty tuning scales, tracker scales and key frame layouts for player and reproducing pianos, coin pianos and orchestrions, music boxes, table-top organettes, reed, pipe, and electronic organs, barrel organs and various other miscellaneous mechanical musical instruments. In addition to the six hundred fifty pictures and illustrations, there are capsule histories of many of the companies which produced these instruments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. There are numerous informative articles on such subjects as arranging piano rolls, how to decode an unknown scale, how nickelodeon rolls were originally made, selecting the type of roll to be used for a new orchestrion, arranging music for barrel organs, tuning antique instruments, how rolls are perforated and detailed pictorial tours of both the QRS and Play-Rite Music Roll factories as they manufactured rolls in the early 1980s. There's a good bit of information on player pipe organs, and for the carousel buffs, a fascinating collection of pictures of Charles Looff, the carousel builder, and many of the fine machines he made--all of which were fitted with beautiful mechanical organs.

All the information needed for restoring and maintaining pianos is contained in this clearly written volume. Arthur A. Reblitz provides the ultimate reference book and instruction manual for both the professional and the amateur. Professional piano technicians rely on Piano Servicing in their daily work, yet its instructions and the hundreds of clear drawings and photographs are so easily understood that any person handy with tools can quickly grasp the fundamentals of piano servicing and rebuilding work. At least twenty-five schools where piano servicing is taught use this as a text. Having sold more than 45,000 copies of the first edition, Vestal Press in pleased to have played a role in helping technicians and hobbyists rebuild, maintain, and tune untold numbers of pianos and is especially proud of the book's endorsement by the House of Steinway. This greatly enhanced and enlarged second edition has new material to benefit owners of the earlier edition.

All the information needed for restoring and maintaining pianos is contained in this clearly written volume. Arthur A. Reblitz provides the ultimate reference book and instruction manual for both the professional and the amateur. Professional piano technicians rely on Piano Servicing in their daily work, yet its instructions and the hundreds of clear drawings and photographs are so easily understood that any person handy with tools can quickly grasp the fundamentals of piano servicing and rebuilding work. At least twenty-five schools where piano servicing is taught use this as a text. Having sold more than 45,000 copies of the first edition, Vestal Press in pleased to have played a role in helping technicians and hobbyists rebuild, maintain, and tune untold numbers of pianos and is especially proud of the book's endorsement by the House of Steinway. This greatly enhanced and enlarged second edition has new material to benefit owners of the earlier edition.

"This is a newsy, respectful, affectionate tribute to a trouper..."-- Booklist