I'm a new subscriber and I've rebuilt many grand players. We put the
electric pumps in now. My favorite Amphion some had upside down
valves. These regulators had a little disc on a stem, held in place
firmly by another stem with a hole in it, tension adjusted by a spring.
Now we throw guts out of old players, but I saved some regulators to put
in uprights. I'm interested in MIDI into old players; and making
roll-up player with levers from old Pianocorder or PianoDisc.
Wayne Boksa
[ Welcome to MMD, Wayne. I'm curious about the Amphion devices.
[ Amphion was the player system manufacturing operation owned by
[ American Piano Co. The same man who invented the Ampico, Charles F.
[ Stoddard, developed and patented lots of devices used even in
[ competing systems. The fact that these old devices don't appear
[ in other player actions, or in later years, suggests only that
[ some devices were replaced later by cheaper ways to do the job.
[ I'll bet there are lots of well-designed pneumatic devices in
[ early player pianos which we seldom hear of. -- Robbie
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