Old Olive the rolling Pianola music on the move.

Old Olive the rolling Pianola music on the move.
Old Olive the rolling Pianola music on the move. Would you like to see some photos of my Pianola unit? Well if not sorry but I’m going to show you anyway. It tows very well and is stable but it is heavy when I had it weighed with the rolls it weighed 1450kg with about 250+ rolls on board. A lot of the steam rally members and public may have seen it out and about last year it played for 5 to 6 hours a day with no problems. Now anyone that knows me will no that if someone says you cannot do that and I disagree I will just go out and do it just to put them right. And this is one of them challengers. The unit was only built has a -*test*-('") bed for a new pipe fair organ I’m building with a piano in it. So I needed to see if I was right or wrong. To build such a unit, as most of the organ/piano boffins and sceptics rubbish my plans to build such a unit (and you know who you are.) but not all wanted to take me on one side and batter me some helped. They said It will be out of tune every time I move it and that’s if it dont brake it’s back the first time out. I can now say with some authority that’s a load of rubbish I think I’ve proved my point I can now continue with my organ build. The Pianola only needed tuning three times one when it was first fitted in the trailer before it went out and once mid season after the bellows was restored and I just did that one because it was easier to tune it when stripped down. And I had a slightly sour note and I pinged (snapped) a string but that was probably a bad string or me being over critical. Not bad to say it travels miles and miles most weekends and played for 5 to 6 hours a day at the weekends. Remember the Pianola lives in a trailer on my drive. Now I know some of you will think that’s wrong. But if one users a bit of logic, in the good old days when we had bombs dropping on our heads and we all had rickets and the pianola was in full swing we didn’t have central heating well not many did. So the Pianola was usually only put in the best room the parlour well that’s what my mum called it, (in the good old USA it’s known as the den) and the fire was only lit when some one was coming round. So that means that most Pianolas was kept in the dark and cold and often damp rooms. And has many Pianola restorers will tell you central heating is one of the biggest problems for Pianolas. It dries out a lot of the workings but I wont go into all that gogudygook. Has this was a -*test*-('") bed to see if I was right or wrong about such a unit and if it was practical to put a self playing piano in my new self build pipe organ. Now all the -*test*-('")ing and practical queries answered it’s no longer needed. I will be sorry to see this one go had a lot of fun with it in fact I will probably burst into tears when it goes. I have also got another Pianola that I have just Midi-fide and if your interested I my post some photos on imod. But now the -*test*-('")ing of that one is over I will be dismantling it shortly in preparation for the final one that will be going in my new organ build. (Not the dean that’s on imod. But the one I am building and again I may upload some info and photos on imod) but don’t want to be seen has to be trying to hog the lime light on iMOD. Any way back to old Olive. As you can see from the photos the trailer was purpose built for the job. The units and wheels and tyres came from the ex army surplus store/yard. I chose these because they are built to do a job and not to a price and are made for on and off road use. I towed the unit over 2000 miles last season most weekends and I deliberately went over speed bumps and across fields at steam rallies to -*test*-('") the design. Yes I know it looks like a caravan it needed to, for parking reasons at home. See photos of the trailer before the body was build on it. The trailer was scratch build to my design. The caravan chassis was removed very simple if you know how with no damage to the body in anyway. Again something I have done many times. The body was just bolted on using the manufactures pickup points of the body. Then before the back is cut out the internal dividing wall is installed making it much stronger and provides some of the anchor points needed for the Pianola. The dividing wall inside splits the Pianola from the living quarters. The living quarters sleeps 2 in bunks with a 2-ring cooker with sink and water closet. Now it was never my intention to paint the unit or to make it look spectacular in any way just to be safe and do the job. So please no comments like it will be very nice when you finish it.

Pianola photo

Well done phil! You see, you can post photo's without my help! I have to say I am getting into pianola's after peddling a few rolls through Nick's when I had a short stay with him last month.

Hi Phil, I saw your piano last year at Rempstone and I've got an photo of it along with some other exbizits. There is an also an simlar instrument to yours at Dingels Steam Village. Ben :)

Hello there Phil If you have a good iron framed piano, nice tight tuning pins and a trailer with soft suspension, then as you have found, you should not have too much trouble with tuning. But don't let the piano get too dry. However, you may have some interesting effects when you put pipes with the piano. Every organ pipe 'moves' with temperature change, and so does every piano string. Usually an organ will move its pitch reasonably together, though reed pipes move differently to the flue pipes, thus sounding out of tune with each other. An organ is only in tune at the temperature it is tuned in. The same goes for pianos. Unfortunately an organ will go out of tune differently to the piano. Some theatre organs had a piano that could be played with the organ from the organ keyboard. This wasn't so bad in a relatively stable temperature on a decent theatre, but if the temperature changed - oh boy did it sound off! Non the less, I wish you luck with your project. Peter Griffiths

Hello Phil, Well done with your projects. Your back must be knackered after lifting the Pianola, & now the organ! As you know, pianolas can be twice the weight of a conventional piano. We had a Pianola during the late 1980s bolted into a trailer. It was a very solid German piano made by Richard Lipp & Sons. Very loud. It travelled to many local events & even made an appearance at the GDSF. The tuning was very stable & we only had it professionally tuned annually, although I occasionally tickled the odd rogue note up, now & again. It always got positive comments from the public as it was such an unusual exhibit. I think there are maybe 4 or 5 traveling pianolas now. I sold it to put a deposit on my first house. It now lives in the Clive Bedford collection in south Lincolnshire. Rob.

If anyone is interested we will be at the May steam & country show Wollaton Park this coming weekend 29th 30th April and the 1st of May 2006 with old olive. So if any members of iMOD would like to come along to see us playing the Pianola or just to give me a piece of your mind then please come along, should be a good long weekend. There will be refreshments, on site stalls, beer tent, organs, toilets, and so on. There will be a small cost for entry, if it was up to me it would be free to iMODer’s. But I’m not on the committee and have got no intentions to be.

All you need now are a couple of Can Can girls.

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