The Automatic Musical Instruments Collector's Association (AMICA) was formed in 1963 by a group of collectors in the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

area, committed to the preservation, restoration and enjoyment of vintage mechanical musical instruments that play by themselves, focusing on those made from 1885–1935. Typical examples include

player piano A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern im ...

s, reproducing pianos, player

reed organ The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

s, player pipe organs, orchestrions,

music box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or ''lamellae'' ...

es, fairground organs, etc. Music media includes paper

music roll A music roll is a storage medium used to operate a mechanical musical instrument. They are used for the player piano, mechanical organ, electronic carillon and various types of orchestrion. The vast majority of music rolls are made of paper. Other ...

s, folding continuous cardboard music, pinned cylinders, and pinned discs, etc. The scope of interest embraces not only the instruments themselves, but also their music media and published literature of the whole of the industry throughout this era. Since 1964, the association has grown to some 1,300 members worldwide, with 13 Chapters throughout the USA. It is now affiliated with 15 related associations, societies and institutions. It holds annual conventions and from time to time these are held in foreign locations such as the United Kingdom (1995), Australia (2001) and Germany (2007).

External links

AMICA website
{{Mechanical instruments Mechanical musical instruments Organizations established in 1963 1963 establishments in California