Re Ampico B
By Robbie Rhodes
1. Re: 2nd crescendo for late Ampico: the Ampico B has only one
crescendo device operating from the Treble Crescendo channels. I
consider the performance of my B piano inferior to the Ampico A when
playing most A rolls. I recommend installation of a second
crescendo in the late-production A pianos that were originally
equipped with only one crescendo device.
2. The nice covers for the underside of a grand piano have a felt
lining on the inside surface which helps muffle air noise. Yes, the
cover often lies forgotten in the garage, because --
3. to play 88-note rolls on Ampico B, I pull off the tubes at the
expression valve block, leading to intensity #6 on both bass and
treble. Recommendation: buy another piano for your 88-note rolls:
a vertical pumper; it's much more fun. The Ampico B is *boring* by
comparison!
Since I've expressed a couple of small opinions above, I might as well make a big (opinionated) statement here:
Premise: The Ampico B music reproducing *system* is inferior to the Ampico A system, because there are so few music rolls for the B.
Evidence: The Ampico company reissued some classical music performances with new coding for the B system; they sound much better. Therefore Ampico knew that the B was inferior. Dr. Hickman, as a concerned engineer, was unable to convince Ampico management that the new "B model" should perform as well as the Ampico-A with the existing library, and so he was compelled to compromise the performance in favor of cost-reduction.
I love the pneumatic inventions and innovations within the B mechanism, but I prefer to hear most of the Ampico library performed on an A piano. The music sounds better!
I hope that, someday, Wayne Stahnke will be able to automatically convert A-coding into B-coding; that was the alternative which Dr. Hickman hoped for.
-- Robbie Rhodes
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(Message sent Thu 4 Jul 1996, 19:26:34 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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