Piano

In an early post I mentioned that I had to play the piano spur of the moment and it wasn't pretty. There was another Sunday where the Relief Society pianist was helping in Primary and in RS they panicked, though she made it back in time. Both the RS pianist and the primary pianist were asking me if I could fill in for them sometimes. I said only if I could practice on their pianos. Maybe it was time to get a piano of my own and actually practice on it.

So Tuesday, I was wondering around D.I. with Mikkel, who always wants to go outside to see the big toys.

There was a piano out there, which happens pretty rarely. We played on it for a minute, and the action was good, and the tune wasn't bad, and it looked pretty good inside, and was only $150!

but then we went to go look at (play with) the toys.

I sorta forgot about the piano again until someone started playing it for real, and it sounded pretty good. But I'd have to find someway to get it home. Piano moving is not for the faint of heart, and I nearly decided against pursuing it.

But I called Richard, and he recommended that I call my dad for input. Dad wasn't awake just then, but Demi said that for pianos you need to wake him up, so she did. He listened for a minute asked a couple of questions and said "buy it."

So I did.

But now I had to get it home. Looking back I probably should have at least got quotes from the piano movers someone in the neighborhood knows, but we've always tortured our friends and done it ourself.

I asked the neighbors, but their truck was full. So then I called the elder's quorum and they said they would see what they could do.
D.I. said we only had 24 hours, but Richard called them and got that adjusted so that we could pick it up on Wednesday evening and made arrangements for people to help.

I'd told Richard the price and that the piano was simple and plain with a crackle finish, but words are insufficient, and I didn't have a picture.
I missed all the excitement of getting the piano into the house. so I can't describe it, but somehow they did it! Richard thought I'd said $250, so he was very excited about the even lower price. The simple styling suggested Shaker furniture to him, and he liked the crackle finish and thought the sound was great.
So I guess I did good.

What follows is more detail than most anyone cares about a piano, so feel free to move on now.
We tried to look up a few things about it with the following cues
It is a Hamilton Manualo with a Baldwin seal inside and a printed warranty that covers the piano for 10 years and the player mechanism for 5 years.

The crackled finish looks like those brush on antiquing finishes you can do, but I am pretty sure that this one has naturally aged this way.

The manualo part of the name means along with the warranty on the under lid mean it was once a player piano, though little trace of it remains. The Baldwin seals means that Baldwin acquired Hamilton before this piano was built.
Given that the last patent listed is 1913, we figured it had to be after that. I later found the serial number, which according to the www.bluebookofpianos.com means it was built sometime after 1915-(#76000), but before 1920-(#93000)

Here's a quote from the company about the piano:
The Hamilton Manualo is a player-piano of extraordinary merit. It combines the qualities of the Hamilton pianos with a scientifically constructed player mechanism. It is absolutely sure to give lasting satisfaction. The player would have been made by Baldwin.

Want any further info? Post a comment and I'll see what I can find?