Video

You're making a Knabe fan out of me! I've always enjoyed this tune.

Wow that is amazing.

Are you cleaning the rolls before you play them? Ash is not what you want in your player stack.

Awesome work as always! Your edge trims are so clean, I still haven't gotten mine looking that clean but my perforator was banged up in shipping so a whole lot of stuff is out of whack xD

Very nice instrument!! Sounds great...

Nice job, Dad!

Are there directions on how to put this together? Also, how much overall does it cost for all the parts? Beautiful piano btw.

How did you build the lasercutter?

This is amazing. I love the whole lineage of an original roll ==> midi ==> G code ==> new roll. Although I understand all the reasons for converting an instrument to midi control but there isn't anything as amazing as an instrument playing from a paper roll! Good work all! Do you think this would work punching a cardboard "book" for a band organ? Certainly more material for the laser to remove.

amazing

Can you provide an estimate of material costs and/or the vendor and model numbers for the components? If it’s not a huge outlay, I want to build one too!

F A N T A S T I C. I'm on contact with Spencer and will be building one too. Is your exhaust up and out the same flue as your furnace?

That sounds amazing!

Oh my goodness Bill! THIS IS AMAZING!!! How much editing was necessary with your perforator to get the roll lined up correctly?

Good to see this working and playing on such a fine piano. I recognize your setup but forget who it belongs to. You are the first to get this actually working. I do not have a pneumatic player and only made one full roll with bad X axis calibration so it did not play properly. It is really good to get confirmation that this method does work. I put a lot of effort into it and until now was sort of concerned since my first full roll was garbage. I have made several updates to the program and do not know if i got the latest to you. I also have made an unspooler for large rolls and it works very well. Uses an optical IR avoidance detector and is real simple. I can not tell if your spool is unspooled by a motor. Pulling from the Y axis motor is not enough for heavy spools of paper.

Ah sweet mystery of life life

This piano looks almost identical to my Knabe, but mine is missing the ampico player, apparently removed many years before I got it. I wish it were still intact. What a great video. Thanks for sharing.

Great work on repairing the roll! This is one of my favorite rolls in the Ampico library. It always surprises me that hobbyists never mention it. Thanks for the shout out! The Mason is a fabulous instrument, no doubt. I certainly love mine. With shorter pianos, I think Knabes scale designs were much better than the competition (including M&H!). If I find a 6’4” Knabe with Ampico, I’ll let the Mason go. Your piano marvelously demonstrates the system and the intelligence of the Knabe designers and craftsmen.

Not a great choice of hammers

Who restored this piano and the Ampico? It seems like they did a great job.

One of my favorite pieces.

Your Knabe need make no apologies, it sounds superb and would be a much better "fit" acoustically for the living rooms for which reproducing pianos were intended. I have been told the name is pronounced something like "Ker-NARBah" rather than "Nabe" to rhyme with "babe". Is this so? Thanks for the great music Gavin East Lincoln, New Zealand

Loved the song--and the beautiful tone of the piano. Classic.❤

Great roll.

Great roll!

Very nice! I’m loving your posts. I have this roll also and a lot of the early ones and my piano is the same model. I also set it on Subdued for these WWI era rolls. Thanks for sharing.

An invisible pianist plays the piano.

Ferde Grofe rolls are great!

Nice roll played on a nice piano!

Ring the bell boys! 303wal is back :D

Just wonderful!!

The Knabe could use a tuning touch up, otherwise it sounds amazing as always!

Frank Milne!!! :D

Another fantastic roll! Keep 'em comin', I love this piano!

well foto'd, well done. me 'n my daughter pumped many similar rolls. piano now is resting but ready for more ;-)

Great music, but a tripod for the camera would help.

I've only heard Frank Milne's roll recorded for Duo-Art so far, it's a bit more assertive in arrangement which is interesting.

Frank Milne's foxtrot recordings and medleys from the 21 series are some of the finest arrangements of some of the best music in history!

Beautiful piano! Tempo is waaaay too fast for the arrangement though xD It's a good one however, Arden & Carroll duet rolls are some of the best!

Suggestion: don't move the camera about too much. Leave it on the roll for a few bars, then show the keyboard nice and steady for a few bars (or just leave it on a tripod to show both at the same time). -Maybe don't bother showing the hammers striking as that's the same on all pianos. Focus on the keyboard and the roll, as those are special features of the player piano. Very enjoyable to see and hear this lovely instrument, perhaps the nicest-sounding player piano I've yet heard online. My maternal grandparents had an upright player piano, which was a delight to me as a young boy.

How lovely. Well done for having the piano in good tune also. Thanks for sharing.

Wow! Growing up I must have heard that roll well over a 1000 times when we'd go out east to my Grandmother's house where my dad had his other children with three and six legs lol his favorites next to me. I can remember rebuilding bellows and valves for different pianos over the years. Totally appreciated that! Thanks Eddie J. Long Island N.Y.

Wow, that's something I haven't seen in ages.. the bottom cover. Thanks for the share. I've noticed that when you're taking a video of the Knabe, it's like you're recording memories of, say, your baby.. I appreciate that. Thanks, Eddie J. Long Island N.Y

Interesting roll 😮. Fun fact when I'd play one of my fav rolls like Ampico 66913 Queen high selection that includes 'You must have been a beautiful baby..on an A draw I'd have the piano set to brilliant, pedal on, automatic and I'd pop the cover off the left side of the draw and unplug the bass - treble hose and lid open to full basically cranking the piano volume. Thanks for sharing. Eddie J. Long Island N.Y

What year is the knabe from, and are those the original ivory keys? They both look and sound fantastic. Thanks for the share. Eddie J. Long Island N.Y

Very quiet player system

Here's a request any 88 note Ampico test rolls you can drop in for my amusement? Thanks for sharing. Eddie J. Long Island N.Y

I loved playing this roll! Memories 😊

There's a roll I remember listening to frequently when my dad would come out to visit his kids, the ones with three and six legs.. Lol, the bag of Ampico rolls to the left. Thinking about it, I have over 1500+ Ampico rolls and maybe 100 of other makes, including some Duo-arts. I'm going to check out the rest of your videos. Thanks for the memories. Eddie J. Long Island N.Y.

Thank you for that. I used to be able to listen to one of three players as my dad left me with three player baby grands two Knabes with Ampico B draws and a Hains bros with an Ampico A draw he was in the middle of rebuilding the two Knabes when he was met with untimely death so I only had the Hains to play but only with small and standard Ampico rolls unfortunately no of the jumbo rolls fit and about two years ago im guessing the pump motor brushes wore out. I have plenty of parts, thank you, dad, and hope to find matching brushes so I can listen live. Thank you, Eddie J. Long Island N.Y.