John Farrell was worried that he might hurt his player by using a vacuum
cleaner instead of the trackerbar pump.  All I can say is, if that is
the case, then it will take well over 30 years of constant cleaning
that way to do it (ha-ha!).

Frankly, I think that using a crevice tool on the end of the hose ,
sealed around with your hand is excellent.  If you will place a thin
hanky into the end of the tool first and then seal with your hand
holding the hanky, you can see what kind of dust and paper you're able
to draw out.

The trackerbar pump can easily create around over 100 inches of vacuum,
which is nice, but only for a short time.  It works very well though,
because the smaller the hole you have to pump air through, the higher
should be the vacuum to do it.  So when you have a truly clogged
trackerbar, the well lubricated trackerbar pump will always be the best
of all, since vacuum cleaners rarely develop over 60 inches, so the TB
Pump is twice as effective.

But for maintaining a clean trackerbar, I strongly recommend them.  The
next nice thing to try to do is-- get your wife to vacuum the
trackerbar every time she vacuums the carpets! Take her crevice tool,
paint it bright red, and write on it very neatly-- "Special Automatic
Atomic-Enhanced Device for Preventing Costly Player Repairs." Explain
to her that you are replacing her old crevice tool with the new one
which will do everything her old one would do, plus, it has special
powers on player pianos.  That's what you call truly "automatic." Good
luck!

Craig Brougher

P.S.:  My wife just informed me that while this may seem to be a more
automatic way to clean one's trackerbar, one must spend time he other-
wise would not have to spend, making sure one doesn't end up with the
crevice tool in the wrong crevice.

 [ Mind the cravat, too!  -- Robbie   ;)