Mechanical Music
What are Mechanical Musical Instruments?
Mechanical Musical Instruments are instruments that play music automatically through mechanical means from preprogrammed source material such as music rolls, cylinders, discs or even MIDI files. Examples include music boxes, roller organs, player pianos, reproducing pianos and orchestrions. Other items such as musical clocks and some automata (for example singing birds) can also be included in the category of Mechanical Musical Instruments as long as they are truly musical. Most are vintage instruments that are at least 75 years old; although there are some new instruments still built in small quantities.
How I got started
Collecting and restoring Mechanical Musical Instruments is a new hobby for me. My interest began in late 2006 when our family decided to purchase a grand piano. We were looking at both new and used pianos and as part of my research before purchasing, I asked the opinion of a good friend of mine who collects and rebuilds reproducing pianos and orchestrions. He suggested that I consider pianos that were much older than I had previously been considering – pianos from the latter two decades of the “golden age” of piano making (c. 1910 -1930). He explained that with a little patience and effort, I could likely find and rebuild a high-quality reproducing grand piano that would cost me no more than a new, medium-quality grand. After considering the suggestion of my friend, who in his college days worked for G.W. McKinnon in Santa Fe Springs, CA (a name familiar to many Mechanical Music enthusiasts), I was very interested in obtaining a reproducing piano.
After some additional research, I decided to look for an Ampico reproducing grand. It wasn’t long before I was the proud owner of a 1926 Knabe 5'4" Grand with an Ampico "A" reproducing mechanism. Details of the piano are provided on the page “Our Knabe Ampico”.
Since my purchase of the piano in late 2006, I have been collecting Ampico music rolls and other Ampico artifacts (books, piano catalogs, roll catalogs, audio recordings, original print ads, etc.). I plan a complete rebuild of both the piano and reproducing mechanism, although only minor restoration work has been accomplished to date.
I have also started looking at other types of mechanical musical instruments to add to my collection. I find both orchestrions and some of the large disc music boxes quite interesting and hope someday to own additional instruments when time and money allow.
Last Updated: 3 Dec 2007