A Piano Like None You've Ever Seen: J. P. Seeburg Orchestrion "H"
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2019
- This is a very rare piano that I can pretty much guarantee you have never seen before! It's an "Orchestrion", and not only is it a piano, but it's also a pipe organ, reed organ, drum set, and xylophone too! I found it at Bill Kap's Piano in Cleveland, Ohio.
It's for sale on Ebay!
www.ebay.com/itm/Seeburg-H-Ni...
If you like music, you might want to check out my second channel "Milan Recording Studios". Feel free to subscribe and hit the bell icon if you want to!
ua-cam.com/channels/u1LrpmWwK1ztTvIayRar9w.html
Whoever made this was like “I ain’t waiting for midi and DAWs to come out”
Haha. This is a AW drop the D
This is not a piano. This is a work of artistic mechanical genius.
I have the twin to it. There are 36 known originals to collectors. Most were made before 1920. Mine was 1915 and came from a bar in CA. The pipe imitate the sound of the flute and violin. The knobs on the case turn off the extra Instruments. See Seeburg H for more videos of this model There are no reed pipes. The violin pipes are unique to coin pianos and organs. Seeburg made many different models of coin operated pianos and around 1929 started producing coin operated phonographs discontinuing the pianos. There is a book easily found called the Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments detailing many of these pianos. Get a copy for your coffee table.
PLEASE upload a video of your instrument, I’d love to see another working example
How much is this machine worth. It's the first thing I'm buying when I hit the lottery
+Don Teach: PLEASE upload a video of your instrument, working or not! Actually, even if it's not working, it might give some perspective to people who would dare to complain about it being out of tune or whatever, to show how much intricacy these things take to operate properly. It would be worth just seeing another one like this! Thanks in advance!
snickpickle go to UA-cam and search for Seeburg H There are several good videos showing other known examples.
Mime is the one Seeburg Orchestrion Player Piano 1915.
My father was a piano technician in the 20s and worked on these. Of course they were constantly in need of adjustment and tuning so he had stories to tell about about working on them and their locations, some in the red light district of Baltimore.
I was just about to comment that it must have kept a tuner in full-time employment - but thought I'd check I was the first to think that :-) It sounds pretty horrible like this, but if it were properly in tune, then it would be wonderful. In some US climates it must have been impossible to keep in tune for more than a day or so. Strange, in a way, to go to the trouble and expense of building a machine like this without considering the maintenance. Unless Seeburg offered it on a rental basis with the maintenance included?
Imagine having this thing in your house and it starts playing in the middle of the night.
That's exactly what I was thinking
Just keep a short leash on all your nickels! ;-)
Bye.
Hopefully not! I am almost out of toilet paper. 🧻
Imagine having this thing inside your house.
10:07 it starts playing.
Not all heroes wear capes
THANK YOU !!!!
its so amazing to see the skills of the last century & all made without computerized machinery !
Technically it is an early example of a computer
like air-driven binary. "1" = Hole (Air In); "0" = Paper (No Air)
This beautiful instrument is 100 years old this year, and in light of quarantine, I am ever so happy to have seen this video and know that this instrument exists
Reminds me of the 1875 model Saloon piano I had bought and had restored a few years ago. It is an 1875 Story & Clark "Saloon" style piano. Fifty were made from 1874 til 1915, came with a banjo attachment, cymbal, snare drum, and many dampers and string bars. It had four pedals a pull rope and a lever for the cymbal. I found it in Virginia City Nevada, many years ago in one of the old Saloons, the Silver Dollar, if I remember right. I played Ragtime, Boogie Woogie on it and the Tourist's came out of the woodwork along the main st, and sang along for about 2 hours, buying me beers and cheering me on. Was the time of my life, really enjoyed it! I have finally learned how to play it with all the extras thrown in, and make it sound good!
Back in the early 1960s when I was a young boy my dad took me to the cliff house in San Francisco to see their collection of player pianos, music boxes and other coin operated instruments. They had an orchestrion there, and there was also an orchestrion at the Sutro Baths. There was also a Wurlitzer Tonophone, which was a player piano with the music recorded on barrels instead of paper rolls. Also, they had a very nice music box with the music recorded on brass disks that were about 24 inches in diameter. The entire collection was sold off in 1966. It was a fascinating place. Your dad may have gone there before it was closed down. These days the cliff house still exists, but it is just a restaurant.
Sounds like it was a cool place! Wonder what happened to the collection, hope it's all still out there somewhere. I did a video of one of those music boxes with the brass disks, the one I saw was a Regina.
Beautiful instrument. Nobody will ever build another like it ever. It would just be done digitally. Pneumatic systems can do some pretty amazing things. Its a technology slowly being lost to time. Thanks for the video.
Mechanical pipe organs still use pneumatics in various ways as they always have for hundreds of years, including wind pressure regulation and pipe valve controls
As things moved to electronics, it appears that pneumatics started becoming a lost art; but as someone has noted, not completely.
They can be quite finicky, so it's always good to have a technician nearby if it's played a lot.
It's hard to comprehend the hours it must have taken to restore this. Countless pneumatic actuators, bellows, and the woodwork. That's the amazing part. But for a 200k payday, it's not a bad hobby.
Hi James, I have been restoring the cases and pianos on these Orchestrions for many years now along with an associate who brings them to life by restoring all the pneumatic workings. Our work is found in many prominent collections. Thank you for informing people about these beautiful instruments, they are truly works of art that not too many know about. -Steve
When I was learning how to tune pianos, my teacher took me to a house with an antique upright I will never forget. While not as flamboyant as this one, it still boasted five pedals, cymbals, bells and a rack of small tambourines that hovered between the keys and strings. It had such a rich, warm, golden sound and was easy to tune, despite it's age because it was so well preserved. I'll bet it was made by J. P. Seeburg too.
Nice
Do you know what country this piano in the video was made in?
Maybe by James Pavel Seeburg?
Awesome! There used to be a Tavern in the Chicago area called Svoboda's back in the 50s and 60s. The owner collected old cars, player pianos and Orchestrions.
There were well over fifty of these beasts (Beauties) and they were all immaculately restored and operable Alas! Mr. Svoboda, his tavern and his various collections are long gone.
Thank you for a wonderful blog that brought back some fond & precious memories of my long-ago youth!
Andrew Rood www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-02-02-8701080965-story.html.
What a great article
I love the old band organ, it made a great companion to the merry-go-round!
Amazing! Imagine the man hours involved in making that? Real craftsmen! So glad it has survived.
Some real honest to God mechanical genius went into working on this
Justus P. Seeburg (born 1871)came from Sweden when he was 16 years old. In 1928 Seeburg went into jukeboxes, by the late fourties they, with the select-o-matic mechanism, became the world's biggest and best producer of jukeboxes and background music systems. I've restored jukeboxes for 30 years now, there is no better quality in coin-op machines then Seeburg.
You need to visit the House on the Rock in Wisconsin. It's a house built by architect Alex Jordan and it is filled with mechanical bands.
I happen to know for a fact that at least some of the instruments at House on the Rock are no longer actually playing, probably because they could not be maintained for continuous use. What you are hearing is synthesized electronic sound.
Thanks for showing this remarkable instrument. Kind of the 1920's keyboard synthesizer in embryo - the concept of Korg, Moog, and Roland, 40 years in reverse.
On the far south side of Chicago, there was an ice cream parlor that had one of these. Not quite as ornate, but the sound is unmistakable.
I’ve seen this done, but never to this extent. A really interesting find, thanks so much for sharing!
if you ever get to Central Wisconsin, visit House on the Rock. Once upon a time, the place was filled with self-playing orchestras. Most of them don't really function too well anymore, but the sheer installation is worth a look.
Wow that looks like something out of my dreams
People : You can't fit an orchestra inside a piano.
Orchestrion : Hold me.
Thanks, James. Nice to see a Seeburg Orchestrion playing quite well. A number of manufacturers made orchestrions. Nickelodeon was a brand name which has become a generic term, as have Pianola, Hoover, Biro, PC, etc. Orchestrion builders included Imhof und Muckle, Wurlitzer, Seeburg, Mills Piano Company, Weber, Phillips, Welte, Popper, and Hupfeld, and others. Hupfeld included 3 real violins in their Violino Virtuoso models, and some American builders, such as Mills, also used a real violin in some instruments. Some orchestrions are still being built today, including Ragtimewest and Pat Metheny, in the U/S.
At 4:40, those are the Violin pipes. What you called the reed was the frein harmonique, which brings out the string sound. It was patented by A. Gavioli in 1892, and Violin pipes are found on most street and fairground organs. It sounds as though the Violins on that orchestrion have not been voiced correctly. At around 13:20, you can see some of the Flute pipes.
If you're ever in Europe, there are a number of mechanical music collections and museums which are open to the public, mostly in the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Germany, France and Switzerland. Perhaps the most famous one is the Museum Speelklok, in Utrecht, Netherlands. Check out the KDV website.
The world of reproducing musical instruments is a very diverse one! Lots of unique and cool instruments out there. My favorites are probably the Reproduco and the photoplayer.
This is a fantastic instrument and has been restored beautifully. There must be a temperature problem for the flute pipes to be out of tune, because I don't think a restorer would have overlooked this. Imagine how it would sound if they were in tune with the piano.
You probably have to tune it quite frequently as the weather changes.
Just imagine playing the piano part yourself, while the rest of the system plays a backing track. It would be almost like having your own personal band, all inside of one very tall piano...
A friend of mine here in Farmington. CT has one like that in his collection of pianos and organs in his house
Don Teach.My dad, his 3 sons were all piano tuners including me and I would not care to guess the cost of tuning this marvelous instrument.I notice how it needed tuning.
The music played? "Cacophony in C Minus" by Johan Amaduce Matcheski.
Bach to the Future in 88 piano keys !
I’m pretty certain that’s *Wolfgang Amadeus Matetsky*, who occasionally composed underscoring for the Firesign Theatre.
Thank you Catherwood.
hahahaha perfect ol
@@schwei56 Memories of the firesign theater. Thank you for reminding me of the great fun. I saw them in Providence Rhode Island in 1970 in 1 of their rare stage performances. What a laugh riot it was, because there were visual jokes that went along with all the comedy which you would never know from listening to the recordings
What an amazing instrument. Thank you for uploading.
Actually, I have seen a piano like that before. There's this place in Colorado Springs called Ghost Town Museum and they had something very similar, although I think it was called a Wurlitzer Nickelodeon. I got a tape of the music at the gift shop, but I listened to it so much that I wore the tape out. Those are truly amazing instruments!
Good guess, but those are not, in fact reed pipes. They are flue pipes (which work like a whistle), and the little brass part is called a 'harmonic bridge', which makes the pipes sound like a violin. The flute and violin sounds are probably made by organ pipes.
I love your channel! I have been building organs for thirty years, and I think these instruments are amazing. Thank you for what you do!
+
Yesterday's theatre organ with midi. The piano has a really nice tone too.
That is AWESOME in every way, and you are so kind to share this with all of us. Nevada City, Montana, has a "music hall" museum with several antique automatic music machines that you can put coins in and play. I spend HOURS in there, living happily in the past :-) -Randy Ingersoll
Absolutely beautiful. I just enjoyed watching this video. Thank you for your knowledge you give ,when explaining an instrument too.
What an amazing instrument. The craftsmanship and details are beautiful.
LOVE THIS CHANNEL! especially the interesting historical musical instrument content!
What an amazing instrument.
James,
The violin and flute are both organ pipes. The rank of pipes you see and call ‘reed’ pipes are not actually reed pipes, but rather are flute pipes, and the mechanism you see on the front of the pipes are a way for the pipes to create a tremulated sound to them.
The paper roll will have a punch for each instrument, and when that punch opens it activates or deactivates the instrument through a toggle system.
A remarkable instrument. It is impressive what they did with, mostly, pneumatics in the pre-electronic age. As for how it is able to distinguish what parts of the roll should be played in what voices --- I would have no idea, but it works. This thing must have cost a considerable sum in its day, especially in view of its elaborate cabinetry. As for who would have used it: The fact that it operates by nickels tells me that it was intended for commercial use, and was in fact an early juke box. As to why they went out of style, I could only suppose that when the phonograph came along, it was more versatile and likely cost a lot less. The machine is, apparently,not the musical equal of a full pipe organ; but then again, seems admirably adapted to its intended use, which would have been to play the music of the time in commercial establishments. One thing I find interesting is that of all its available voices, only the piano voice can be operated from the keyboard. As to why, who knows? A guess would be that in the kind of establishments likely to use it, any resident musician would have been a pianist, so that from an operational standpoint, having a piano keyboard would have allowed it to be played either automatically or by a live musician (perhaps along with singing?) Very interesting.
I notice that the organ pipes only copy the upper part of the keyboard when they sound, so I'm guessing that there is a single control track on the roll which switches a rank of pipes on (like the stop on a manual organ). Each percussion instrument probably has its own track.
This was so neat to see and hear. My Grandfather started working for the J P Seeburg Company in Chicago back in the early 20’s and was there when the company transitioned from making player pianos to manufacturing the elaborate signature Seeburg jukeboxes. As a kid I remember spending time with him on his lunch hour and him proudly showing me the juke boxes he helped build. It is a memory I’ll always hold dear. Thank you for doing this wonderful video and bringing back those memories.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Like others, I first saw something like this (though without the organ part and not nearly as elaborate) in an ice cream parlor. Some of them were made without the piano keyboard as they were only intended to be played automatically, but many were just like this and on some you could turn off the piano part so that you could play that part yourself. Beautifully done, and it could be done today with electronics rather than pneumatics but still preserving the actual instruments, but of course it would be cheaper to do it digitally which is a shame.
Thanks for showing us such a cool instrument. Even if it didn't work, it's def a nice piece of furniture to have, but the fact that it does makes it that much better. 👍
Incredible thanks for sharing.
Ahh! Musical Art. Also used in high end restaurants and bars. Classic!
That's a really unique instrument! Thanks for presenting it.
What an amazing piece of craftsmanship. Just amazing!!
The TIME and effort that must have gone into restoring that machine to that level must have been immense. VERY VERY cool piece of history. Thx for showing.
Thanks, guy, for your enthusiasm and skills and for considering many of us out here who appreciate your demonstration.
OUTSTANDING presentation for an amazing instrument, years ahead of its time. You have a future in broadcasting. Words were clear, and you didn't stumble over them. Passionate, interesting.. and love how you went through the mechanics first.. to give the listener a little understanding about what they were about to see and hear. Well done.
They are not reed pipes. That piece of metal is a voicing aid known as a beard.
The music is from Norma by Bellini.
You can hear the famous »Casta Diva«
Awesome - thanks for sharing. The history of nickelodeons is incredible.
I did see one at a museum in St. Augustine, FL, which has an amazing collection of antique musical instruments.
That's no piano nor organ
*_That is a whole cathedral!!!_*
Matt, my $200 Casio keyboard has 820 sounds, and it runs on flashlight batteries.
Richard Seaman we are talking about acoustic things, not technological stuff
Where is the bishop?
Matt Sugui It’s more like a theater piano lol
Thanks for sharing this wonderful instrument with us.
I think the scroll represents the 88 piano keys and obviously some tracks for drums (I think 8). The organ always exactly follows the piano for the upper three octaves or so, so my best guess is that there is a track that determines if the pipe organ should be played. If it is open, the notes played by the piano are forwarded to the pipe organ.
If that is the case, 100 tracks would be sufficient, which might sound insane, but is not that strange. The sheet is really wide (A4-like, 30cm?) where street organs regularly use 70 tracks on approximately 15cm wide scrolls: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draaiorgelboek
I thought it was interesting during the song that the piano had an old bright sound to it, whereas when you played a little at the end, it had a soft mellow sound.
The Seeburg H is the granddaddy of Nickelodeon’s. The reference to violin and flute on the knobs is actually violin and flute organ stops. Obviously a six figure instrument. Thanks for another great tour!
i built 4 of these in my life time from scratch ''o'' rolls and coin operated,these were common place,the sound recording 'jukebox'' replaced them
I would love to hear more about this, Will; perhaps u could post pix and talk all about it?
Man, you should be called a National Treasure. Do videos, do audios, do anything you can to pass your knowledge and experience
on. Too many arts and skills have vanished. Let us not be a culture built on sand.
Daphne Raven pppppp
James,
That really is different!
Thanks,
Cheers,
Rik Spector
I never see it before. Until found your channel. Thank you showing us¡
Thank you. It's been a long time since I've heard one of these. Three things. There actually is an "player" violin. It fascinating to watch. "Fingers" press or release from the strings, and little wheels make up the bow. A rich person certainly could buy one for home use, but orchestrions, player pianos, and other such were mostly for public places like restaurants, tap rooms, and amusement palaces. So, yes, these were precursors of jukeboxes. And for a really good time, try to find some Wurlitzer band organs, especially the 165 (I think). They're the merry-go-round instruments and are as fascinating as an orchestrion. Thank you again for this look at an orchestrion. I used to produce a ragtime/automatic instrument festival, so I've heard many and spent many nickles.
Beautiful piano! Thank you!
Amazing, James!
The carvings were beautiful.
I just love your enthusiasm about all the wonderful finds.
It's hard not to be excited about finding something so rare and unusual.
Very interesting. While I know that the paper rolls in hand-cranked "busker" organs work by air suction, I didn't know player pianos do the same. I have always assumed that the holes allows a circuit to make electrical contact, energizing an electromagnet to activate the corresponding piano key.
Hi James - I think you would really like the Musical Museum in Greater London. It has instruments of all kinds, including ones like this, and the guide is very knowledgeable. Come and visit it if you're ever in the UK!
Wow! That is one hell of a performance for a nickel!! Thanks.
Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for this geigenwerk and as well, the instrument itself! What fun!
Wonderful instrument!
A local museum had one of these for a long time. It actually did have a violin inside, with metal stalks to finger the notes and a small roller that substituted for a bow. Really cool! Museum sold all of their orchestrions when they were short on cash :(
Very cool! You should visit San Sylmar in California...they have a museum with several very large Orchestrions. Not to mention a 4 manual Wurlitzer Theatre organ and several mechanically operated grand pianos. It is a grand place with myriad cars and collections.
I've watched a video of an orchestrion that is exhibited at the Speelklok Museum in Utrecht, Netherlands that has organ pipes that can imitate woodwind and brass instruments. That one has enough instrumentation in it to take the place of a small 15 member orchestra. It is known as the Philips Paganini. If you've ever watched Wintergaten's video's you'll know. The Philips Paganini also has a really interesting paper scroll revolving mechanism that can hold 10 paper scrolls allowing it to play a couple hours of music.
Thank you so much for sharing this fantastic instrument. Great video of detailed explanation on the working of this incredible organ.
This seems like something you'd see in Vegas.
the forefather of MIDI step sequencing
A fascinating instrument. Are there actually two pumps running from that one motor? I recall that on those old player pianos the pneumatic actuators that played notes were actually vacuum operated, yet the organ pipes must need positive pressure to speak. My father rebuilt an old player piano back in the 1960's. I was amazed at the automation that could be realized using mostly cloth, wood, and leather. Thanks for the video.
Man, I was totally riveted by this video - totally wild! You sure do come up with some really interesting instruments - this one is way up there! Classic! thanks man!
Glad you enjoyed it! It was an amazing instrument.
I'm a pipe organist and the flute and violin were the organ pipes the one with the Reed's is the violin and the flute is hidden behind the violin rank (set of pipes)
Reminds me of a few I saw in Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany last August.
Fascinating instrument.
This looks like one that was in Vermont in the Jelly Mill, a store in Manchester that's no longer there.
The legend says they built the full thing in that exact location since they will not be able to move once it was done.
Thank you very much for this video and your love you show for this wonderful piano. I am so looking forward to your other videos .
I don't know your name, but I love your enthusiastic presentation. Thank you for sharing. You are a remarkable young man.
Very cool. Thank you James!
What a magnificent instrument
Coincidentally, I saw one a few weeks ago in a home in San Jose, CA.
What would be funny would be to hollow one out entirely, and right in the center put a tiny Arduino connected to an amp and speakers.
Seeburg also made jukeboxes for years along with Wurlitzer. If you pull those knobs on the side while it's playing it will add those instruments. (Xylophone and violin). They just double the melody part.
That was amazing.
I looked this up because I have in fact seen one before. Just within the past week. There is one just like it (or very similar) in a curiosity shop/museum in Long Beach, WA where I was vacationing.
James, that is an absolutely amazing machine (and I have been inside the workings of the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia). On a lighter note, I'd be willing to bet that the "buffalo" nickels that were originally used to start this instrument have been raided long ago. ~Bill Stephens
Thank you for sharing...have never seen this in my life ...very interesting ...sound is not good but it is surely more decorative piano than practical....can imagine how all most impossible it is to tune this piano.
Amazing and beautiful
Thank you, for such a thoroughly explained video.
Originally from Wisconsin... while attending our annual Tri State fair, the primary Carnival Operator was Royal American Shows, and they acquired this trailer-mounted version of yours, calling it an 'Old Band Organ'...it was beautifully painted, and detailed. There were a few carvings, similar to that of the woman and man on yours, except theirs came to life, as the music was playing. I really marvel at devices such as these.
Again, Thank You, for such a fabulous demonstration of the music marvel. ⚘
STUNNING!
I went to The Musical Museum in Deansboro, NY about 45 years ago, and they had amazing things there. Sadly, it closed about 20 years ago (I'm guesstimating), and everything was auctioned off.