Randy Blake wrote in Digest 980620:

> My piano tech tells me that pouch leather will allow faster operation
> which is needed for the proper operation of the accordion pneumatics.

Fast operation may not sound as good as slow operation.  The valves
operated by the Theme accent holes (the "snakebites") must respond
quickly, and so should the bass and treble intensity valves.  But the
accordion pneumatics per se, in my limited experience, seem to give a
nicer sound when they're slightly lethargic.

Duo-Art tech Clare Spencer demonstrated the effect for me, using valves
with wide gaps and bleeds in the lines to the accordion pneumatics.
When the bleeds were properly sized the piano played crescendo effects
very smoothly, much like the sound of an Ampico or Welte.  When the
bleeds were removed the sound was distinctly different.  I think we
concluded that we liked the reproduction best when the transit time was
somewhere between 1/6 to 1/3 second.

That was in 1960, with Clare's newly-restored Duo-Art; has anyone made
similar experiments?

Robbie Rhodes