Player Piano Problems

[Justin Hill]

I went to visit a player piano today; I'm not a player piano tech but  
the owner couldn't find anyone better to look at it.  I went just to  
inspect it and get an idea of the condition, warning the owner that  
repair work might require a specialist.

Right away, I've got a mystery to solve, and a player-piano-newbie  
question to ask.  I've uploaded some interior shots of the piano at  
http://www.classic-keyboard.com/pages/playerp/html to explain my  
mystery.

If you take a look at these pictures, you'll see that there are two  
pipes exiting at the left of the main chamber in picture 4.  The  
upper of these two pipes is disconnected at the other end (picture  
5).  Now, not being prepared to dismantle anything at this point I  
could only try and push my hand up in that corner and 'feel' for the  
place that pipe is supposed to be connected - but I can't find  
anything.  The problem is I'm not sure what I should be looking for.

Here's the newbie bit; the set of bellows to the right of the roll  
mechanism (picture 8): do they drive the roll mechanism, or the other  
way around?  And if they drive the roll, is it possible that the  
disconnected pipe is why the roll doesn't move at this time?

Leaving the pipe as is, the pedals have very little resistance.   
Inserting a bung into the pipe, the pedals get up a reasonable- 
feeling resistance - but the roll doesn't move.  I've checked the  
obvious things like being in play rather than re-roll etc.

By the way, the 'control panel' (picture 2) includes two unmarked  
buttons at the far left.  I'd like to know what they're for.

I'm assuming this is a 'straight' pianola rather than a reproducing  
piano and isn't worth a huge amount of money.  Of course I'm probably  
wrong.

The owner (an old lady) said that the piano was purchased from a  
dealer in the early 1960s along with a huge chest of rolls and   
played regularly (as a player piano) up to about 15-20 years ago when  
it fell out of use.  It hasn't been moved since and is still played  
occasionally (manually).  The fault as described to me was 'the roll  
doesn't go round any more'.

How great would it be if the problem was this disconnected pipe and I  
could stick it back in for her?  Obviously the piano is old and  
unmaintained and would benefit from a (non-economic) rebuild.   
However, she'd be happy if the thing just worked at all.

Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks,
Justin