Straube Player Piano

[01luisgabriel]

Currently perforating a song. Making a roll just like you.

[muzzlefartface]

What song is that?

[JamesPriceJohnson]

@muzzlefartface johnny b good i think

[tsltyler]

my grandmas rerolls automaticaly! You don't have to push the switch to reroll.

[themick352]

I work at a shop for a guy who rebuilds these player systems, and they work off a vaccuum, not air blowing through, but rather, being pulled out of the bellows.

[Turkeydoodlers]

Man that piano is worn out

Check those hammer heads out they are flat

[kmortiz2001]

Come and make mine that beautiful!

[chaoz4ever]

Fascinating instrument....

[WelteMax]

Piano Is terrible out of tune!!!!

The music is great!!!

There are some buttons and leavers in the spool box,

What do they do?

[TonyL1000]

@WelteMax

maybe a transposing lever ( on left)

then a auto-sustain ON/OFF in middle,

followed by the typical tempo indicator on right

being it's only a 88 note footpumper, I can't see it having much else

[TonyL1000]

@TonyL1000

k at 2:30 ish you can see them labeled right lever says roll adjuster ( meaning manual tracking device linkage  )

middle says transposer High / Normal / Low, followed by tempo indicator, whew lol

[BrianGriffin66]

Great piano, plus the roll is fun to listen to. I wonder if there's a MIDI scan of this roll? I've been trying to find one.

[lpguy12]

nice piano etc. but it sure needs a tune job. I swear I heard a locomotive whistle but it was just some out of tune notes. :)

On the bright side you played Johhny Be Good in about 9 different key signatures

[jonjonjonmw3]

Has it been tuned since 1916, lol

[pianotek1956]

Terribly out of tune!

[gregoryagogo]

Nice Boogie Woogie! Go Go, Go Johnny Go! Johnny B. Goode!!

Once you hear those chords at the end you gotta hurry before it pulls the paper off the roll!!

So this model does not rewind the roll automatically... Maybe that mechanism is not working but there are two notes (holes in the paper either on the left or right) that supposed to trigger the rewind before it gets to those final "warning" notes...

[HabTasianet]

@gregoryagogo Yes, you can hear these two notes played twice, so the mechanism is broken.

[Acr2440]

Go Johnny Go!

[cyndie26]

Can this player piano play all of the following? (not at once)

The Entertainer-Scott Joplin

Maple Leaf Rag-Scott Joplin

The Entertainer's Rag-Jay Roberts

A Real Slow Rag-Scott Joplin

Combination March-Scott Joplin

Elite Syncopations-Scott Joplin

Let It Be-Beatles

Carmen-Bizet

[gregoryagogo]

If you have those rolls!

[ibold1000]

Of course it can!! But you have to buy new rolls of course, And defiantly tune it first!!

[nicolaj0154]

it sonded a bit funny at the end were it should warn you to rewind, it sounded like someone was luaghing.

[hotsickle]

Does it use regular or unleaded?

[HabTasianet]

Its electronic

[HabTasianet]

Sorry for double post,

How does the piano actully read the roll?

[KawhackitaRag]

At rest, the pouches, one for each note, have vacuum on both sides, the underside supplied by a small hole called a "bleed", about 1/5 the size of the tracker bar hole. The underside of each pouch communicates with its tracker bar hole via a tracker bar tube. When a hole on the roll uncovers the tracker bar hole, the atmospheric air rushes down the tube and pushes up the pouch (because the tracker bar hole is bigger than the bleed, the atmospheric air can linger and has some force)...

[HabTasianet]

Thanks for that :)

[KawhackitaRag]

The pouch pushes up the valve for the playing note, which (in the valve channel for the note pneumatic) shuts the upper valve seat from atmosphere and opens the lower one to vacuum, which immediately exhausts the pneumatic. It snaps shut, and via a pushrod and/or small "finger", pushes on the piano whippen, playing the note. When the roll hole goes by and the tracker bar hole closes, the vacuum supplied under the pouch by the bleed is enough to move the pouch quickly...

[KawhackitaRag]

... with the pouch no longer pushing it up, the constant vacuum under the lower seat of the valve pulls it down immediately, shutting off the vacuum to the pneumatic and opening it to atmosphere again. The pneumatic opens (assisted by the weight of the piano action for that note), ready for another cycle. A well-restored player action (and well-regulated piano action) can repeat each note about 10 times per second, which is faster than most human pianists, even using both hands.

[KawhackitaRag]

Sorry for the rather complicated description, it's easier to understand with some good diagrams, such as those in Harvey Roehl's "Player Piano Treasury" book or Art Reblitz's "Player Piano Servicing and Rebuilding" book.

[HabTasianet]

God, i love the way it warns you

Well kept player piano (love it :D)

[Epmonito]

This is the only instrument that plays itself!

[KawhackitaRag]

What do you mean? There are player pipe organs, player reed organs, player percussion instruments, player stringed instruments (banjos, guitars, violins), and combination instruments (orchestrions, band organs, etc). There are also videos of many of these kinds of instruments on Youtube.

[bingcrosby1903]

are you trying to sell this? If you are, how much do you want for it?

[NICOLAJ154]

good player piano.

can you show some more

piano rolls?

[hagirl62]

Thats just amazing whoever invented that. wow.

[looking4athrill]

The pump/peddles cause a vaccum inside the player .Each piano key is linked to a small bellow.The paper roll ,rolls over the trackerbar.The tracker bar has 88 very small holes one for each piano key.When there is a hole in the paper,the air gets in and the bellow collapses striking a key.There is more to it, but this pretty much just sums it up.

[KawhackitaRag]

Yes, that's pretty close. The important part is the "stack" which has the valves and pneumatics (small key bellows) which plays the piano. The important components are a pouch (small diaphragm, usually leather) which is what is pushed up by the atmosphere rushing down the tracker bar tube when a hole is opened, and a valve that it moves, which alternately supplies atmosphere (open, not playing) and vacuum (closed, playing) to the note pneumatic. See the website "Player-Care" for more info.

[Shangas]

Hmm, nice piano. It sounds a BIT out of tune, but then that may just be the way that old pianos sound. I've been around enough to know.

[Ikaruszaki]

Damn! That needs to be tuned! Otherwise, nce narration. I still can't understand how the air blowing through the roll makes the key sound...

[jeffcaldwell1]

I can't explain it. The hole that lets the air through is the note that plays.

[UncleLouie867]

@Ikaruszaki The air doesn't blow thru the roll- it "sucks" the air in and then- it's too long to explain.

[looking4athrill]

Just curious on the name of the song , its catchy!.

[discolando]

Sounds like Johnny B. Goode

[looking4athrill]

Thanks for sharing i love these things.

[stubbyeddy]

lovely condition! i think maybe it needs to be tuned some time soon :-)

[jeffcaldwell1]

Yes it will need to be tuned as it hasn't been in over 12 years.