Hi MMDers.  Julian Dyer's posting in yesterday's MMD (09.01.98)
reminded me of my introduction to player pianos.

About 25 years ago, I spotted a "For Sale - Pianola" ad in the local
newspaper, with an address only a few streets away from our home.
Persuading my wife that purchasing this would be a good idea was
achieved with the help of moral blackmail like "it would be really good
for the children".

I did get a local piano tuner to look over the machine who pronounced
the piano sound but he didn't know much about players so wouldn't
comment on that aspect.  Since the player produced musical sounds on
pedalling I took the risk and shelled out a whole $175 (this was 25
years ago).

When it was delivered I soon discovered that the player was chewing up
rolls during rewind.  In the forlorn hope of finding some information
about players I went to the local public library.  To my amazement the
hope wasn't forlorn at all!  They had a copy of Ord-Hume's "Player
Piano".

I carried it home in triumph and spent a whole weekend sitting on the
sofa in our lounge room reading avidly.  I think I reacted rather like
a 19th Century South Seas Islander converted to Christianity; the book
was a revelation of a whole new way of life.  And my wife let me just
sit there while she had to contend with three rampaging kids -- she
didn't know how unwise she was being!

To my delight the book had a series of photos of the restoration of
an Aeolian action, and I had purchased a Stroud piano with just that
action.  Even more, there was a line drawing of the double-finger
tracking system.  I felt that forces more powerful than I could control
had brought me, the book and the pianola together.

However, when I began to study the diagram in detail, it didn't seem to
make sense.  In a couple of places where the diagram said there should
be atmospheric air, I thought there should be vacuum.  I did some tests
on the player and found that where I thought there should be vacuum,
there was vacuum.  The diagram in the book was wrong.

I soon found that the problem with my tracking system was a blocked
bleed hole, not back-to-front tubing, and it's been working perfectly
ever since.

This exercise wasn't exactly an intellectual triumph but it gave me
the confidence to tackle rebuilding the player action.  Even so I still
remember very well the sinking feeling that accompanied the cracking
off of the first pneumatic.

I wrote to Ord-Hume about his faulty diagram but he never replied.

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania.