Weber Maesto Orchestrion in the Museum Speelklok

[@AbsoluteAdlerMannheim19]

Auch ein tolles Video. Und Utrecht pflegt seine Instrumente wirklich gut. Sie klingt, als käme sie frisch aus der Produktion :)

[@mechanicalmusicuploads5925]

Ja die klingen super! :-)

[@orgelman_1217]

I love Maesto!!

[@stephenspark776]

Splendid - and great music too. The children have the right idea - this is music to jig about to! Look at the pleasure on their faces, just as I had when I first heard Mortiers, Gaviolis and the like at traction engine rallies years ago and a little later on a visit to Copenhagen was introduced to Mekanisk Musik Museum's Weber Maesto (among other delights - they had a Seeburg H, a Hupfeld and a Violano Virtuoso, as I recall).

[@HMV163]

The name of the tune is "Der verliebte Bimbambulla"

[@mechanicalmusicuploads5925]

Thanks :-) I will add it to the discription.

[@arburo1]

Usually just Bimbambulla.

[@joonasvoutilainen7363]

Oh yes IT IS 👍😅😊😎😳☝️☝️☝️😅

[@samuelbanks8247]

lovely orchestrion i here a decap organ playing this song may by someone here it orchestrion and then arr for decap

[@karleick6679]

Don't look, just listen! I recommend some good headphones

[@karleick6679]

@AaronB 24034 What's so interesting about watching a cabinet with a role of music where doors open and close? I think the music is way more something to get something out of the instrument. I can't do it any other way, because I'm blind! Unless it's interesting for you in some way, maybe combined with the music, yes, I understand. At anyrate, I just love all the work that has gone into this!

[@mechanicalmusicuploads5925]

@@karleick6679 I am happy to see that you can enjoy the music anyway :-)

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Well, on the one hand you’re right that the chaste cabinet of this orchestrion, meant to tastefully and discreetly harmonize with the decor of a fancy restaurant, doesn’t show any of the mechanical or technical details; they are all hidden. Of course this was intentional. However, in order to show the interior, one needs to remove the upper front panel, which also lets all the sound out the front (except the clarinet swell box which is still enclosed, and the piano whose sound is already coming out the soundboard in back), thus spoiling the subtle and incredible dynamics of the 3 other pipe ranks, not to mention the proper dynamic balance of the piano, percussion and pipes, which is regulated by the technician to sound best and most natural when closed. So the instrument will play, and be visible, but the effect won’t be as realistic or magical because of the change in balance and loss of pipe dynamics.

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Some instruments on public display thus have important wooden or cloth panels replaced with clear glass or plastic panels in museum or public attraction display, so that the instrument doesn’t need to be opened to show the public the insides, but they can still see them and enjoy while the instrument is playing. This is often a good compromise (although glass has slightly different audio reflective properties than wood, and much different than sound transparent cloth panels), but must be done in a completely reversible way so the original factory panels are not spoiled.

[@briansmith9707]

@@andrewbarrett1537 Great points, Andrew.

[@samuelbanks8247]

monty decap

[@createinside4613]

is this a new one (siegfried wendel)?

[@andrewbarrett1537]

No, this is one of the original 8 or so known extant Maestos. There is one early all pressure one; six late ones in more or less standard cabinets like this (some with more swell shutters than others; some with mirrors in front and others with cloth panels in front); and one special custom one built for a restaurant, now in the Elztalmuseum in Waldkirch, which has a small Unika-like piano main control unit, with mandolin and roll frame but no pipes, and the 4 pipe ranks and percussion all in a small remote pipe chamber electro pneumatically connected with the piano control unit like a theatre pipe organ. In addition, the Wendel have made something like at least 6 or 7 replicas, one of which is in their museum, and another in the Hall of Halls Museum in Japan (not sure where all of the replicas are).

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Here are the Maestos I know about. According to Mr Weber (interviewed by Q. David Bowers), approx. 60-70 Maestos were originally built by Weber, mostly in the 1920s (so very few early ones). Of that number, 8 originals are known plus 5 or 6 replicas by the MMM in Germany, as well as a few other non replica buildups playing the files on MIDI, such as the “Kinder Maesto” with Unified Reproduco pipes, built by Ron Schmuck in Canada. Here is the list: Original Maestos (8): Musee Baud, L’Auberson, CH Museum Bruchsal, Bruchsal, DE Special design with small keyboard piano unit with electrically connected pipes and percussions in separate chamber Elztalmuseum, Waldkirch, DE Only known early style Maesto; all pressure system Krughoff Collection, Downers Grove, IL USA (offered by Marty Persky) Nethercutt Museum / San Sylmar, Sylmar, CA USA Museum Speelklok, Utrecht, NL Previously auctioned in 2012 by RM Sotheby’s Ex Milhous Collection, FL Sanfillippo Foundation, Barrington Hills, IL USA Built 1926 Stahl’s Automotive Foundation, Chesterfield, MI USA Previously auctioned in 2016 by Morphy -- Replica Maestos: Apparently approx. 5 or 6 replica Maestos have been built by the MMM. Replica Mechanisches Musikkabinett Museum, Rudesheim, DE Replica Fredy’s Mechanisches Musikmuseum, Lichtensteig, CH Replica Mechanical Music Museum, Linz, DE Replica Hall of Halls Museum, Kiyosato, Takane, JP Replica by MMM? (Uncertain) private collection, WI USA

[@MechanicalMusicTravels]

@@andrewbarrett1537 Isn't the one at Stahl's the one that was part of the Milhous collection? And what about the Maesto that was auctioned as part of the Yaffe collection?

[@runner0075]

Museum guides here look like funeral house workers.