Recently I worked on a Univeral, not the old one, but the hybrid
vacuum/electric roll drive model made in the 1970's. The roll drive
motor control board was bad and was beyond my knowledge to troubleshoot.
After some digging, I was able to locate the last remaining person who
has any intimate knowledge of these instruments. After several phone
calls and much discussion, the following information came to light:

There were seven iterations of the control board and the design was
marginal at best; most of the upgrades were done on the fly and were
not documented, or the records have been destroyed and are no longer
available.  The Pittman motor (for the roll drive proper) was also
inadequate for its task: the gears would eventually freeze up in the
housing, so the roll would stop! Attempts to free the gears were never
successful.  Consequently, many of the Universal owners now have player
pianos that work well as dust gatherers and shelves for bric-a-brac. It
must be something like the feeling that player owners had during the
1940's and '50's when grandmother's player finally gave up.

Fortunately all is not lost. George grabbed the last stock of parts,
out of the hands of the trashman (literally!) and brought them back to
his shop. The stock has been generally depleted by this time, He has
however, redesigned the motor control board, to account for all the
revisions as well as make the overall design a little more robust, to
cope with the normal demands of moving the roll drive motor. These new
boards are available in a month. Also, he has a quantity of NEW
Pittman motors available (direct from the manufacturer, from a limited
production run).

So if you need either one of these items, please contact me, via email
and I will send you price and delivery times, in return. They might even
be adaptable as a substitute for the tried and true windmotor, with some
adaptation. They assuredly will fit an any Ampico or Welte drawer, as
well as up top in the Duo-Art. Or am I speaking heresy?

        John McClelland.
        gryphon@eramp.net