I recently acquired a Steck Duo-Art Grand piano (about 6'). The piano
has been reworked awhile ago-I do not know when.

All of the visible pneumatics have been recovered, but I don't know if
the stack has been re-done (I have not removed the covers to check).

The piano does play, and rather well. BUT, someone has fiddled around
with the expression box, and that is part of the problem.

The muffler felt for the spill valve is missing, replaced with a thin
piece of white fuzzy felt.

What I need to know is: what kind of felt is SUPPOSED to be in the
spill valve hole?  All of the books I have on Duo-Arts show a piece of
thick felt, wound into a roll, then glued into the hole.  How dense is
the felt?

Also: This is an early Duo-Art.  All the controls are in the front
keyslip, under the action, with the tubing going down between the
keys.  One odd thing about the expression box : it has NO crash valve!
I don't think the valve was removed; there is no elbow on the side of
the box to connect to the crash pouch, & I see no screw holes for the
valve to have been mounted to the expression box. Is this piano
unusual, or did some of the early Duo-Arts not have crash valves?

BTW: this piano has no key shift (una corda) pneumatic (if this will
help to date the piano).

Mike Carey    mcarey@usit.net