Doherty Player

[Berley A. Firmin]

Hi,
Player pianos that are 60 or more years old are in need of complete
restoration...Period!
    After that many years the leather, felt, and rubber-coated cloth are
rotten and can no longer function like they did when the piano was built.
    If the player unit plays easily on rewind and barely on PLAY, it is
because of one problem: The valves, faced with with thin leather are rotten
and no longer able to hold suction in the Stack, or pneumatic chest with the
88-note pneumatics. When the transmission is shifted  into rewind, the Stack
is cut off from the suction, and the full power of the bellows is directed
to the air motor only.
    Engage a Player Piano Technician to restore the player unit. This
entails many tedious hours of rebuilding the pneumatics, their valves,
(sometimes two per note), the leather gaskets, sealing the wooden wind
channels, recovering the bellows, replacing flap valves, and renewing
numerous bushings.
Mr. Berley Antoine Firmin II
Bayou La Combe, Louisiana
Polyhymnia Musical Restorations (automatic mechanical Mus. Inst.)