Hello all, apologies for the delayed reply to this topic (mail delivery
problems).  Dan Wilson was puzzled by my comments on the ease of use of
"pre-Temponamic hand worked Duo-Arts".  Dan said:

> This certainly doesn't apply to the electric Duo-Art Steinway XR
> belonging to my hosts in Chicago, Margaret Bisberg and Richard van
> Metre.  I was fascinated by this instrument, because it has no fewer
> than five hand controls only two of which can be reached at one time:
> ... but even without that you'd need to work something with your teeth
> if you wanted full control.

I will describe my 1914 Stroud upright's controls.  On the keyslip, it
has 4 levers for the left hand, set in front/back pairs: the left pair
are linked to the solo and accompaniment knife valves, normal position is
soft and sliding to the right for louder playing.  The solo (accent) is
behind and is easily advanced relative to the accompaniment using fingers
whilst the two are varied together according to the accompaniment needs.
No possibility of unintentionally setting solo less than accompaniment
If the roll has no snake bites, two more levers (on/off type) can be
operated with the left thumb to accent base and/or treble notes.

The right hand is totally free to operate the tempo slider, conduct the
music, scratch your nose, rewind roll or whatever.  Loud and soft pedals
are foot operated as normal.  In the "Duo-Art off" position, a small
pneumatic sets the accompaniment lever to a preset level of about mf for
"hands off" playing of 88n rolls.  I have added an extra control to turn
this off when I need full expression range.  Alternatively, playing
non-reproducing rolls with "Duo-Art on" disables this preset level, but
you can get some unexpected accents if the roll has the full 88 note
range!

I find this arrangement simple and easy to use, working equally well for
Duo-Art with expression off, accented rolls (Themodist) and 88 note
rolls.  On the other hand, my 1921 Steck grand has a neat looking but
impractical lever arrangement like the Steinway Dan mentioned above.

Dan also said:

> ACCOMPANIMENT (sliding either way from central "mf" position which
> it adopts on switch-on)

I suspect Dan is right about the possible tubing errors in the Steinway,
but central mf position is correct so long as it happens *only* with
Duo-Art off.  On my Stroud, however, the pneumatic prevents softer
playing than the preset level, hence my mod. to turn it off when needed.
To conclude, it seems to me that like many other makers, Aeolian was
continually modifying their designs and the results were not always an
improvement, at least as seen in the light of our present knowledge.

Cheers,
Darrell Clarke
Adelaide, Australia