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

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

area, committed to the preservation, restoration and enjoyment of vintage mechanical musical instruments that play by themselves, focusing on those made from 1885–1935.Reblitz, Arthur A..
Player Piano Servicing & Rebuilding: A Treatise on how Player Pianos Function, and how to Get Them Back Into Top Playing Condition If They Don't Work
'. United States, Vestal Press, 1985. Typical examples include

player piano A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home ...

s, reproducing pianos, player

reed organ The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

s, player

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

orchestrion Orchestrion is a generic name for a machine that plays music and is designed to sound like an orchestra or band. Orchestrions may be operated by means of a large pinned cylinder or by a music roll and less commonly book music. The sound is ...

music box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces Musical note, musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder (geometry), cylinder or disc to pluck ...

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. ...

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

References

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