A 1917 "Stairmaster" ...
By Karl Ellison
(Rick Pargeter (thanx for your letter), a list member, writes in part ...)
>You made the comment that you replaced the secondary valves with a 'space
>age' replacement.
>>It seems that a forever unnamed piano supply company in Kansas touted a new
>>material for use as facing on the secondaries, and it's not quite right. Sadly
>>but properly, it's being done again, as if I've got the time.>>
>Hmm. I also replaced the secondary valves on my Standard from our friends in
>Kansas, and after completion, it honestly never seemed to play any better,
>i.e. - It still felt like the stack was still very leaky.
>Is this your problem? Do you remember their stock # of the valve facing you
>used? What are you using now to replace them?
>Did the piano play OK for awhile, then just get worse?
... Yeah, perhaps that crack needed some backing up, but since I've only been on line for about 8 months, I feel that I'm still learning 'nettiquette', and are also still learning how to spell it too. I wasn't sure if it was an electronic paux-pas to mention names, but, what the hell (can I say 'hell'?). Where there's smoke, there's fire, so here goes the flaming.
First of all, The Player Piano Co., Inc. in Wichita are fine folks. Heck, I hear they even took an order over the phone when "The Tornado (or if you're the vice president, 'Tornadoe') whistle" was blowing - a twister was apperently sighted by officials. "I need to finish your order becuase I have to take cover ..." or something like that was the person's response. Jeez, what dedication!
Anyway, I used a outside valve with a sponge neoprene backing - stock # 693. The prob is that since they need to have some wobble to seat correctly, the sponge rubber does not allow this to happen, so they seat themselved cocked a bit, turning your piano into a StairMaster workout center. I need to get this fixed since I'm not all that fond of Spandex. I found some real leather facings. I tested the stack, but apparently my roll-your-own setup was not calibrated (gee), and I wasn't testing at the 5-7" of vacuum I needed. Probably it was more like 20. I was however, able to get the industry-standard 45 seconds of "holding capacity" from my bellows. That was neat. My Autopiano has a huge reservoir, so I'm sure that helped hide any flaws, eh-hem. Hey, I did the best I could, which was close to the book. No white glue, no toothpicks in stripped screwholes ... etc.. Thirty years from now, it'll probably be me back in there, and I ain't gunna have the patience then that I do now.
Also, the Pneumatic hinges they sell that have "pressure sensitive backings" (I think we called them "stickers" when we were kids) that come right off after just sitting for a bit. Man, was I ripped when I had to rip open the 40 or so pneumatics I had spent the prior week making because of this. Stick with animal glue and pillow ticking! BTW, that was item #685.
Um, other than that, they supply quality materials. The primary punchings they sold me were a bit on the thick side according to the specs of my instrument, but I guess you just can't get the correct, .01" and under kid skins these days. I think what *is* produced today goes into making those natural condoms ;-). The stuff I bought was sold as .012", but much of it wasn't. Do you know why they make *corregated* cardboard? Because corregation enhances ridgidity. When you're primarys puff in and out, they make a little corregated wedge around the button. Because of the physics of pneumatics, I understand that the air pressure necessary to do work increases something like the square of the thickness of the punching, so the thicker it is, the harder you need to pump, and if that pouch isn't set just right to cause just the right amount of corregation ... phew! Even my local builder can't get the "correct" stuff, so he has a lot of bits and pieces of unusable skins that he keeps for when he does a pump organ over, or his church's 1955 aging Aolean-Skinner 2 manual 30? rank organ blows a pouch.
Okay. Onto new stuff.
If you wan't to hear a REAL GOOD recording of Gershwin piano rolls played on a Yamaha Disklavier (the original rolls have been transcribed to this medium), then get "Gershwin plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls". It's an Elektra Nonesuch disk # 9 79287-2. Most of the pieces are play by Geo. and Ira. It is really hot s**t music! You won't be dissapointed!! The picture on the jewel box shows Geo at the piano with a cigar in his mouth.
Also, for those of you who aren't familliar - check out "ARTCRAFT Music Roll" Co.. They produce in smaller quantities rolls that are specialties. Not much main-stream stuff., e.g. one roll I own is called "Amer-i-can, that means the Klan", a 1925 KKK March. It was one of their historic re-issues played by Franco Reitih. Now that's special. The tune (and the accompanying "patriotic" words) stinks though ... I don't know too may biggots that are musically inclined, but this one's an obvious keeper anyway. On the inside of the box, they paste a label that give the conditions under which the piece was produced. In this particular one:
"The master stencil for this music roll was was perforated on a 1911 "Style 5" or a 1921 "Style 8-B" Leabarjan perforator, using a single punch-and-die process. An ARTCRAFT Music Roll features "live" automatic sustaining pedal for those who make use of this device; the pedal is marked during the performance after the arrangement has been completed. Similarly, the DUO-ART master rolls are interpreted with the 'Pianola' controls before the expression score is created. AMPICO master rolls are marked and edited on a 1931 instrument belonging to John Powers of S. Harpswell, Me."
ARTCRAFT accepts phone/credit card orders. Call 'em and get on their mailing list - (207) 882 - 7163. They apparently send out periodic brochures for their new roll releases.
- Karl
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(Message sent Sun 28 May 1995, 12:27:38 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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