Tony Law wrote:

> I was wondering if anybody on the Digest had any information on the
> Otto Higel company of Toronto.  I'm trying to find out how many player
> actions they made.  Also is the name Solodant which is found on a lot
> of their player actions their name for Themodist.

Aha! The Otto Higel thread pops up once again. Those pesky Canucks!  :)

Apparently, the Higel Co. made actions (both player actions, and
sometimes piano actions as well) for many of the piano companies in
central Canada.  I assume that the New York and London UK subsidiaries
served their respected markets as well.

> Although the Reblitz book says the action die cast valve chambers
> suffer from warping and cracking, I find that they are usually in good
> shape.  This player action also was made (I think) by Heintzman & Co.
> of Toronto, Canada, using a slightly different design for the
> aluminium stack (the so-called Heintzman version), but it seemed to
> use the Otto-Higel head and bellows system.  That's got me confused.

I recently spent an afternoon at the shop of Harold Hodgkins, a
Niagara-area AMICAn who has been rebuilding players since who knows
when.  When I visited, he was (among other projects) rebuilding the
valves of a Higel Metalnola stack from a Heintzman.  The most notable
difference between the Heintzman stack and the Metalnola stack in my
Karn (later a part of Sherlock-Manning) is that the Heintzman valve
unit is a single-valve, whereas the Karn is a double valve unit.

Aside from this difference, Hodgkins' player action is identical to
mine in nearly every other respect.  In fact, it was kinda spooky
looking at the bellows unit, thinking that it looked *just* *like*
*mine* (with the paradoxical difference that, whereas the Heintzman
action has paper labels indicating the dismantling procedure, etc.;
mine has snazzy etched metal plates with the same information).

I concur about the warping mentioned by Reblitz.  Ord-Hume implies --
once you read between the lines (and I find you have to do that with
Ord-Hume a certain amount of the time) -- that there was a separate
factory in New York.  Perhaps that's where the awful metallurgy came
from -- there's no indication of a problem with the Toronto plant.

> While this action has it's pains, It continually keeps me busy
> as they are pretty common here.  Thanks!

Well, I continue to plod my way through the Karn.  It being the first
restoration I've undertaken, I'm curious to know what's painful about
these actions.  Harold had some choice words about the Metalnola valves,
too.  I get the impression, though, that when rebuilt correctly, these
valves are good performers; and so, I shall continue to slog my way
through this li'l project of Herculean proportions.

> Tony Law
> Ontario Canada

Where in Ontario are you?  I'm deep within the belly of the Beast
(Toronto, that is).

Colin Hinz
ASFi Music Works * asfi@interlog.com * (416) 516-8686