Saturday, January 19, 2013

Spanish Pianola circa 1930

                                                

In my  travels over the last several months I came across an unusual instrument originally from Spain.
 The owner told me that this instrument was shipped from Spain in the 1930’s when several of his family members moved from that location to North America.

During that time period Spain had protection on the removal of historical objects, so this instrument would have been taken out of Spain without proper documentation or permission.

This is a Spanish pianola, or barrel piano. Inside the instrument there is a large drum with tabs on the outside of the drum. 

In the photo set below on the left side of the instrument are all of the controls to operate the pianola along with a list of ten different songs the instrument can play. The controls on the left side determine which songs will be heard.

When the crank on the left side of the front is turned the piano plays the desired song. I have seen several photos of the barrel piano but have not come across one in original condition such as this one.

Here is the photo album below.

Spanish Pianola

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

A Tuner’s Life 6




At times there are piano tunings and repairs to complete out of the Vancouver area. Over the previous year there has been a lot of work in remote areas. When this happens I am not able to keep up with regular postings, so my blog here has been inactive for some time.

During those road trips I have come across some interesting pianos and other piano-related instruments. I will be doing postings about those items along with the usual regular postings about the restorations of vintage pianos, piano maintenance, piano repairs and piano tuning.

The road trips will continue this year, but during my time in Vancouver there will be regular postings here.  
There is much work to do. Over the next several months I will be making changes to the appearance of this blog page, how it functions, along with updating my web site with new pages and changing the appearance of the web site. 
Glad to be back!