>S.K. Goodman writes:
>
>No No,  a thousand times no!  I had this on both my KT and KT Special-
>you DON'T want to "modify" this "archaic and dangerous " switch as that
>would destroy the authenticity and originality.  Yes- I KNOW that an
>electrical fire would destroy the whole machine and probably more,  but
>I do not know of any occurance of coin mechanism-induced fires since
>I've been collecting (1968).   Although it gets quite hot,  that type
>of switch,  like the coin mechs on the WurliTzer harps & pianinos,
>worked just fine when they were new and they seem to be still working
>fine.  Incidentally,  the Wurl.  Harp and early Pianinos actually use
>the nickle to complete the circuit.  How's that for a fireman's
>nightmare?

I suppose you still keep glass spheres of carbon tetrachloride around
to put out fires in your antique instruments?

While I would tend to agree with you for "Museum" restorations, I
really must disagree with maintaining dangerous and hazardous
mechanisms in a machine that will be used by a casual user who is
probably not fully aware of the dangers involved. I think it is more
important that we concentrate on the music, mechanically generated, and
the playing mechanisms. The motors don't care that the electrons passed
through the nickle, and using flame retardant wire rather than dsc
cotton does not affect the tone. If you MUST keep the nickel in the
circuit, at least redesign it so that only low voltages are present,
and the AC is switched through a (hidden) relay.

Marc Kaufman