Unique Upright Jack

[Horace Greeley]

Dave,

A couple of thoughts:

It (probably) is a German action.  I'd contact Barrie Heaton re:
Hercksher's address.  Also,
maybe Lloyd Meyer might have an idea (Renner, USA).  Lloyd sometimes
follows this list so
he might pick this up.

If (failing) memory serves, the late, lamented Brambach had something which
sounds similar.

Another idea would be to try to find out who bought the remains of Trefz -
they had everything
a tuner's heart could beat for - before the fire (some years ago).  (I
know.  Remembering Trefz
is a little like admitting that I still use Tonk Bros. rubber mutes for
tuning...)

>From you description, I wonder if a jack from an old Woods/Brooks 90o
action (or some
similar 90o jack) could be modified to work - at least sort of work,
anyway.  There was another action
similar to the Woods/Brooks, but I don't remember the name at the moment.

They say that there are three signs of senile dementia.  One is loss of
memory, and I don't
remember the other two.

Sorry.

Oooo!  Richard (Moody) - do you still have contacts with orchestrion
people?  This kind of jack would have been
useful in the close quarters of such an instrument - one wouldn't have to
regulate from the top of the action, one
could work more at angles which did not require removing the rest of the
reproducing mechanism and associated
instruments.

Hope someone else can be of more help.

Horace



At 07:49 PM 6/3/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear fellow technicians,
>
>Recently I wrote to ask help about locating a rare jack.  Some of you asked
>for the graphic picture of it but I have been having some problems with my
>software and I am not sure all of you who requested the picture, received it.
>
>This particular jack is multifunctional.  It not only provides the
>escapement, but has a letoff button and screw in the middle, and adjusts
>against a stop rail, reverse of what a "normal" letoff rail does.  The top of
>the jack acts as a backcheck, and attached to the hammer butt is another
>screw and button to adjust the checking.  There is no bridle strap. In fact
>the only wire bending is at the damper spoon!
>
>The action comes out of a Drachmann Upright. On the hammer backstop rail
>there is a decal that says "Staib Abendschein" (could be German) and above
>says "Mastertouch".  Several are broken right at the birdseye and I need
>about 
>20.
>
>I will be happy to attach a picture of the jack to anyone who thinks they
>have a source for replacement.  Your help is greatly appreciated.
>
>
>Dave Peake, RPT
>
>
Horace Greeley

Stanford University
email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 415.725.9062
LiNCS help line: 415.725.4627