Player Pianos

Player pianos have been an important part of the piano industry ever since their introduction in the 1890's. Hundreds of thousands made between 1910 and 1930, plus tens of thousands of modern pneumatic players made since the 1950's, still exist today.

The first player piano was actually a piano player with primitive, bulky mechanisms built into a separate cabinet. Piano players were marketed between 1900 and 1905.
Between 1905 and 1910 the player piano replaced the push-up piano player. From then late 1920's, most piano companies manufactured large numbers of player pianos.
By the late 1920's, the radio and electronically amplified phonograph replaced the player pianos as the latest home entertainment device, and player production ceased during the depression and war years of the 1930's and 1940's.

During the late 1950's, the public rediscovered player pianos, and several companies in the United States such as Ampico, Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon began manufacturing them again. Many old players had quit working, and it became all too common for piano technicians to rip out and discard the player mechanisms for no more reason than to make the piano action more accessible for servicing.