On Thu, 28 Sep 1995 kiddell@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca wrote: > Having worked on a couple of other players more than 5 years ago, I'm > rusty and need a good plan of action (terrible pun) There's always time for a good pun. > I've been attempting to lay my hands on Reblitz's Player rebuilding book, > but being in Canada, importing costs are astronomical (50-80 Canadian bucks). > > Question 1. Is Reblitz worth it, or is there another standard to go by? > (Names, titles, technicians to contact?) About a year ago, Schaff (Lake Zurich, IL) was selling the Reblitz Player Book, hardbound, for about $16.50 US, because Vestal Press planned on bringing out the 2nd edition; well, the 2nd edition hasn't happened yet, or might never happen. They might have some left. Does a library have it, or inter-library loan? The book is good, and many rebuilders highly recommend it but it has certain problems. 1) Some of the valve tolerances are much too wide. 2) Many key words in a procedure are buried within a paragraph, so read very, very carefully!!! 3) Many words depicting orientation, such as top, bottom, left, right are used backwards. 4) Many illustrations are labelled incorrectly. 5) Written about 1981, alot of its chapter on cloth selection is now out of date. For example, we now know that most synthetic (bilons) cloths lost their plasticizer and got gummy and oozy, What a Mess!! 6) Much of the useful information contained in Larry Given's old 1960's book was not put into Reblitz's book because they felt it wasn't important. Even so, it is still the best reference available. Another author, Arthur Ord-hume, wrote about 5 major books on player rebuilding. The main worth of Ord-hume's books, I feel, is in his detailed history of the piano industry in Europe and America, and player inventions from Europe. > Question 2. The client wants a vacuum unit installed as well. Having > never done one (and holding off the price estimate until I find out the > labour involved...) has anyone else done this type of install. > Opinion and end result are the main considerations. A pumper achieves its expression (accents, louds, softs) only from good foot work; so, if the customer wants expression, the vacuum unit is out. A vacuum unit requires the extra switches or pneumatics to provide auto re-roll, etc. Most good pumpers sound better without a vacuum unit. If a customer wants a self-player, I try to locate a cheaper reproducer or expression piano which was designed for electricity from the start, and also play with some expression. I guess a vac. unit, if installed well, is nice, but gives no expression. If one wants a self-player(electric), I feel it is more rewarding and challenging to locate and rebuild a reproducer (Ampico, Duo-Art, etc.), or expression (Themodist, Recordo) unit. They're more fun to play, too. Fred Scoles, RPT scoles@oswego.oswego.edu > That's all... Looking forward to any responses, > > 8-) Rob Kiddell > Canada > > > > > >
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