European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 22, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Classic player piano co. Employee Tom Shoup strings wire into an instrument. Classic s owner estimates sales will top $2.3 million in 1989. By Tara Bradley Steck associated press like the girl in a cartoon from another Era Edke Efer has a Good foot for  his classic player piano co. In Seneca pa.,housed in a nondescript building at the end of a dirt Road the world s great compositions Are performed with no sour notes no missed trills and no botched arpeggios. I m elementary. I play about three four or five songs and that s about it Keefer says. That s Why players Are so great. I enjoy foot pumping them and sitting there singing  Keefer 33, founded his cottage company two years ago when he discovered that the last firm manufacturing player pianos had gone out of business. A music store owner for 12 years he always had a steady trickle of customers for the mechanical pianos even in his Remote part of Northern Pennsylvania and figured there were potential buyers in other parts of the country As Well. In a Small town like Seneca i was Selling two players a year and figured someone in . Ought to be Able to sell 100," he says. Keefer sold his music store mortgaged his Home and went into business in 1986. By 1987, the first full year of production sales reached $1.5 million. He estimated sales would top $2.3 million in 1989, when All the figures Are in. When we first went into production we were Happy if we could finish one piano a Day says Todd Hart 28, unofficial business manager. Now we re building five a Day. The growth in two years is  things have been so Busy no one has even bothered to take the time to paint the Walls or put up a sign. Hart watches the Bottom line while Keefer usually spends his Days poring Over the operation of a new piece of equipment or going Over various phases of production. Dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans the Boss is indistinguishable from his carpenters and technicians. Although players comprise less than 1 percent of the Overall piano Industry Keefer says classic has no Competition. It is the Only company in the world manufacturing players regularly he says. The company first began building a line of players under its own name but production quickly increased when it received orders to manufacture several Hundred players for Baldwin. Sales were enhanced this year when classic received additional orders from Wurlitzer which was acquired by Baldwin. We have our own Little Niche in the Industry Keefer says. Baldwin Sells 50,000 regular pianos a year. They la sell about 400 players. It in t Worth it for them to gear up production to increase their volume 1 percent a few years ago the last companies to make player pianos aeolian which Wurlitzer acquired and Universal went out of business for reasons unrelated for foot pumping and singing along to the instrument itself Hart says. Aeolian was a financially troubled company that had spread itself too thin by building All types of pianos including players under Many different names Hart says. Universal on the other hand had a Good product in its state of the Art player mechanisms which were inserted into another company s piano. But the piano supplier went out of business and Universal was up a Creek without a piano Hart says. A player piano is composed of about 12,000 parts compared to 8,000 in a regular piano. Like a regular piano depressing a piano key causes a wooden Felt covered Peg called a Hammer to strike a string. In a player however the keys Are depressed through pneumatics. A paper Roll punched with holes passes Over a brass bar which maintains a constant vacuum either by pumping the foot pedals or by turning on an electric switch. When a Hole in the paper Roll passes Over the vacuum it causes a valve to close and depress the piano key. The greater the number of holes passing Over the vacuum bar at the same time the greater the number of keys played which is Why a player can do what a human cannot. Customers for player pianos Are often people in their 40s and 50s who have Long nurtured an interest in the instruments he says. With retail prices ranging from about $6,800 to nearly $9,000, they re usually not bought on a whim. Younger people Are buying regular pianos and those who Are older than their 50s Are just remembering and wishing he says. Obviously it s enough of a Novelty item and there s enough of a Price difference Between this and a regular acoustic piano that it s not a question of gee do we buy a regular piano or do we buy a player.1 its when can we afford a player i be always wanted one " despite their nostalgic Appeal players Are not just for the Perry Como set. Piano Rolls which currently Cost about $5 each have been manufactured continuously since the 1890s in music styles from the silly to the Sublime from Scott Joplin to Janis Joplin ragtime to Rock n1 Roll. The two companies currently manufacturing piano Rolls love me Keefer says. They were very supportive when we first started because for a time they were without player pianos and therefore without an end product for their  time was however when player pianos were As common As video games and stereo systems Are now. When players burst onto the scene in the late 19th Century years of piano lessons became academic to Many a would be pianist with too Little patience or coordination to learn to play. Until the mid-1920s, the question was not whether to buy a player but which player to buy says Harvey Roehl whose Vestal press has published dozens of books on the subject. Just before world War i there were More than 40 companies in the player business and from 1919 to 1925, More players were sold than Standard pianos according to . Department of Commerce figures. Famous composers such As George Gershwin Edvard Grieg and Claude Debussy were hired to transcribe their music on piano Rolls. In the Early Days of ragtime Many tunes that never made it to a printed score survived Only on piano Rolls. The player was so popular it often usurped regular pianos. Roehl claims the decline in sales of regular pianos in the 1930s and 40s was partly because a whole generation of children simply had not Learned to play the piano. In one particular cartoon from the Era a Young girl arms at her Side pumps the pedals of a player while her Well dressed Mother remarks to a Friend yes my daughter has a great foot for  when player pianos were in their infancy they were a real Novelty Hart says. Even if it was a Lousy playing piano it would sell because it was a player. If you had a player piano in your House it was a big time party House. It was the place to go on a Friday  but the end came even More quickly than the beginning thanks to the 1929 Stock Market crash and the birth of radio and phonographs. In 1932, not a single player was shipped from the factories Roehl says. Since the late 1950s, however interest in players has been growing and production was renewed albeit randomly. In a sense it s nostalgia for a lot of people Hart says. It gives people a sense of their roots aunt Gertrude had one in the parlor grandpa had one in the basement  As Hart spoke the Rich chords and runs of the Shadow of your smile wafted through the air from a Corner of the warehouse style building where the players Are Given one final test before being shipped. He s Good in t he quips Hart glancing at a motionless dark haired Man listening for imperfections in a Wurlitzer. Actually few of the four dozen employees at classic play the piano and no one not even the Boss owns a  kids Are too Little yet. They d Pound on it says Keefer. Sunday january 22, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 17