Doherty Player

[Terry Beckingham]

Hi Berley,

Thank you very much for your reply. I will show it to the owner of the piano
when I return there tomorrow. I am sure she will not want the expense of
having it rebuilt.

Terry Beckingham

At 08:33 PM 8/19/99 -0500, you wrote:
>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.)
>
>