Aeolian Player Action Removal

[Ron Nossaman]

>look carefully and there should be some sort of sticker with instructions 
>on it about how to move the necessary parts out of the way for tuning.
>
>Wally Scherer
>Lake Worth, FL


It will be in the vicinity of the sticker reading "Made in America, by
American Craftsmen", if it hasn't fallen off too, but that's only for
tuning. To lay hands on an actual action part requires at least an hour if
everything goes miraculously well and you can manage to get the spool box
and tubing far enough forward to weasel the action out and set it on the
floor where you can get to it. This, in my experience, is passin' unlikely.
If you can pull the action, do the 1.7 minute repair, and get everything
back together and "working" again within an hour, go directly to the
nearest Quick Trip and buy a Lottery ticket. You should only need the one
to win.

These little living room warmers were a misguided attempt to build a player
into a price slot that was two sizes too small. The pianos are the least of
the least, and nothing you or anyone else can do to them in a living room
will make them function as instruments. The players were designed to be
assembled from cheaply mass produced parts, by low paid unskilled labor, at
work poorly but dependably, with virtually no maintenance, for about twenty
years, or until the neoprene valve disc got too hard to seal. These
contraptions are a marvel of low budget, moderate expectation, high
dependability engineering that will never under any circumstances work
anywhere nearly as well as a well designed leather valved action, but are
very tolerant of almost anything you can do to them. The trick seems to be
to avoid any attempts at maintenance or repair.

Ron N