by Bob Caletti One day I got a call from someone who wanted to sell a Polyphon music box. It was a 24 ½” upright Mikado-style music box. He sent me pictures and it was a model I had never seen before. We agreed on a price and he delivered it to me. When I […]

A visual tour through the process and methods used By Bob Caletti This project turned out to be quite a challenge but was very intriguing and rewarding. I thought it would be interesting for others to see what is entailed in a project like this and what new methods can be used in comb making […]

By Bob Caletti and Jonathan Hoyt The following example shows the procedure used to repair cracks in the sound board of a 15½-inch Regina table top music box. Figure 1 shows an inside view of the Regina case. The largest crack in the soundboard is straight down the center, but there are smaller cracks to […]

Article by Bob Caletti Photos by Bob Caletti and Jonathan Hoyt My first impression of a rare Jean Billon-Haller music box, upon receiving it from its owner, was that the box was in pretty bad condition. Gears were worn or broken and the comb was missing teeth. The governor was missing a fan blade and […]

Peerless Style D Piano enjoyed by five generations Story and photos by Bob Caletti My grandfather, Angelo Caletti, obtained a Peerless Style D Piano as part of a bar he bought in 1913 in Petaluma, CA . The bar was located on the corner of Washington St. and Petaluma Blvd. The piano was made in […]

Or how to rebuild a burnt music box case Story and photos by Jonathan Hoyt When it arrived, I first thought “Is this restorable?” and then, “How much do they love this?” I had just finished unwinding the shrink wrap from a music box that, to me, looked more like a charred piece of firewood […]

An extensive restoration of the 27-inch Style 5 music box By Bob Caletti and Jonathan Hoyt This article describes the restoration of a 27-inch Regina upright single play music box.   The music box had a lot of damage, was missing parts, and rats had gotten inside and eaten away the wood in some places. […]

Regina Start/Stop mechanism for non-coin operated disc music boxes On this page you can see two pictures of a 15½-inch Regina table top music box start/stop mechanism. In the first image, the spring barrel is in the stop position with the spring-loaded lever restraining the governor start/stop wire. This keeps the governor from spinning. The […]

By Bob Caletti The restoration journey detailed in this article started when I saw an ad on the bulletin board at the MBSI convention a couple of years ago in Minnesota.  Marty Persky was advertising a machine for sale listing it as a 27½-inch Symphonion “Project.”  He had a picture of what a restored version […]

When disassembling a music box take pictures of every part that is removed, before and after removal.  You may think you will remember all of the details when it is time to reassemble but chances are you won’t and your pictures will be an invaluable reference tool. Initial Observations Always inspect the inside of the […]

This article details how you might create crests for both a standard and optional clock style 15½” Regina Changer. An original crest with clock was borrowed and an original crest was supplied by myself for copying. First, you need wood. Poplar wood like that used in the original crests was purchased to make the new […]

Listen to an 18½-inch Mira Grand, mahogany, fully restored and refinished play beautiful melodies.