To answer Bill Shirley's question about fitting an 88-note tracker bar
to a 65-note Pianola, that would certainly be possible, but there are a
couple of problems that will arise.

First, the original bleeds are too big for the small holes in 88-note
rolls.  I wanted some modern music for my Pianola, so I got some coin
piano A rolls and cut them up for pinned-end spools.  (By taping over
the control holes in the tracker bar, the 58 notes of music in the A
rolls work fine.)  But they wouldn't play reliably, having modern,
small sized punchings.

By removing the lid and middle section of the separate bleed rail,
putting thin cardboard over the existing bleed pockets, and poking
pinholes in the cardboard, I made a temporary solution for the problem
of bleed size.

Since the action has primary valves of fairly reasonable size, the
secondary action, even though large by modern standards, responded
properly.  These old primaries are not any heavier than the single
playing valves in a modern player.

The second difficulty will be tracking.  Since the big 6-per-inch
holes, combined with the large original bleeds, allowed considerable
slop in tracking accuracy, 6/inch instruments have no tracking
adjustment.  The accuracy of right-edge alignment inherent in 2-piece
wooden pinned-end flanges was sufficient to insure proper tracking
without adjustment.

If you make adapters for Friestadt spool chucks to slip over the shafts
of the Pianola, they will have to be cleverly designed with some sort
of built-in screw adjustment.  Also, the paper will have to be carefully
tapped down, so that the tracking adjustment will persist throughout the
playing of the roll.  Modern right roll flanges are much less precise
in the dimension between the bottom of the drive socket and the face of
the flange, which does make a difference in 9/inch rolls.

Richard Vance