Stein..Player

[Les Smith]

On Tue, 20 Feb 1996 JIMRPT@aol.com wrote:

> I have a model 'O' from the 20's that at one time had a AMPICO reproducer in
> it. When the piano arrived in my shop it was without player action, in boxes,
> and had been broken down into all of its'  separate pieces. We rebuilt the
> piano (sounds pretty good) and it is functioning in all repects except for
> the shift pedal.----
> 1.The lever arm from the player does not extend into the keyframe cavity but
> stops flush with the top of the keybed.
> 2. There is nothing in any of the parts left over from the player that would
> make the shift lever function.
> 3. There does not appear to have ever been any connection from the shift
> lever to the keyframe,(no rub marks).
> 4. a440.5The old decal identified the player as a " AMPICO REPRODUCER".
> Ques ??? a. anyone have any idea how the shift mechanism worked?
> Ques ??? b. any way to get it working short of making a new lever arm,
> cutting a slot in the keyframe back rail, etc.?
> any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
> Jim Bryant (FL)
>
Hi, Jim. Perhaps I'm just exhibiting my ignorance here, but in 30 years
of rebuilding these suckers, I have NEVER seen a Steinway piano, grand
or upright, that ever had any player mechanism in it except the Aeolian
Duo-Art. This is not to say that a Steinway with an Ampico reproducing
mechanism in it was never made, just that it would be EXTREMELY rare.
The identification of an Ampico compared to a Duo-Art player is quite
simple. In the Ampico, the spoolbox and all the controls were located
in a seperate drawer under the keybed. In a Duo-Art the spoolbox was
located under hinged panels directly under the music desk where they
sat over the keys. Does your model "O" have such a drawer as was found
in the Ampico, or does it have the hinged panels found in the Duo-Art?
Also, is the "Ampico decal you speak of, on the fallboard along with
the name Steinway, or is it only on the player mechanism itself?

As far as the shift pedal is concerned, and here I'm assuming you mean
the "una Corda" mechanism, most player grands didn't use them because
it took too much pneumatic power (suction) to produce the force neces-
sary to move the action to the side. In place of the shifting mechanism
the vast majority of player grands used a hammer lift rail. The hammer
rail was hinged and when the soft pedal was depressed, or engaged by the
player mechanism the hammers were lifted closer to the strings by the
hammer rail in much the same way the soft pedal in an upright works. This
required much less pneumatic power than a regular shifting mechanism
would. My question would then be: Does this piano have a hinged hammer
rail that allows the hammers to be moved closer to the strings? If so,
the connection was frequently made under the keybed on the bass side
of the piano and you should find a hole in the keybed where the dowel
that activated the mechanism passed through. I don't know if any of this
will be of use to you, because the piano as you describe it sounds high-
ly atypical.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net