Bill Wasemann wrote this story which appeared in the 1970 issue of
the Vestal Press House Organ, back when that business was flourishing.
I merely repeated it to put it in our little 'rag.'

The late Mr. Wasemann was an engineer with the Westinghouse Corporation
of Mansfield, Ohio, where he worked on development of home appliances.
He is the man who designed the 'music box' for the drier described in
an issue of The House Organ.  Mr. Wasemann had a degree in mechanical
engineering, and also a Master's degree for which his thesis topic was
about the harmonics of vibrating strings.

Harvey Roehl

PS: There's a factory original Steinway-Ampico B in our community.
Surely there must be a few others 'out there.'  Can any MMD readers
tell us where they are?

 - - -

  Build Your Own Steinway Ampico!
  by William Wasemann, special for The Vestal Press House Organ

Back in the '1930's, my father, A. L. Wasemann of Wheeling WV (now
retired), had a Haines Brothers Ampico grand.  At the time I didn't
appreciate what a wonderful thing it was.  Ours was a musical family
and all four kids took piano lessons; gradually we became real lovers
of all kinds of music.

Years later (the interim being filled with college, the army, going
to work for Westinghouse, marriage, kids, buying a home, etc.) my wife
decided that we ought to get a piano for the kids.  I found a Marshall
and Wendell player which, with helpful hints from my father, I restored
to working condition.  It worked okay, but didn't sound like my
recollection of my father's Ampico.  I began to think Ampico, resulting
in a new project.

By dumb luck I got a Becker Bros. Player for $5.  With further helpful
hints from my father, plus a couple of baskets full of Ampico parts,
I converted this thing to an Ampico.  I also restyled the cabinet to a
more 'modern' look; later it was sold to make room for new things.

By this time, I was really hooked on the euphoria of the Ampico.  After
a very determined search, I found a Model B Chickering in Detroit.
This was promptly restored to operating condition.  The results were so
exhilarating that I decided that I should have a really fine piano with
the Ampico.  I wanted a 7' Mason & Hamlin Ampico, and for a year or
more concentrated on finding one, with no luck.  Then the wild idea
came: why not build an Ampico into a new piano?

By this time my father was vice president of the C. A. House Music
Company in Wheeling, where he had started as a teenager, repairing
Victrolas.  He apologized for not having Mason & Hamlin (the finest
American piano, in my estimation) so I settled on a 7' Steinway (which
I got wholesale), and which later proved to be as good as any Mason &
Hamlin I have ever heard).

The day the piano was delivered will remain in my memory as one of the
highlights of my life.  It was a magnificent thing -- all clean and
new, no dust on the sounding board!  This was the beginning of a
two-year project.

I found an early 'B' Haines Bros. Ampico.  It had all the standard
'B' works except for the action stack, which was built like an 'A'.
The works were removed and the piano sold.  After some deliberation
I decided to build a brand new 'B' action stack rather than trying to
modify the old one to fit.  And so I began.

It took nearly a year to plan the installation.  I treated the whole
matter as an engineering project, making layout drawings of all the
critical elements.

Although the new player action was to be specially designed to fit,
it was patterned as much as possible after a modern 'B' action.  Air
chest and pneumatic shelves were made of well-seasoned hard maple.
Expression regulators were glued directly to the air chest, same as in
the real thing.  The lost-motion arrangement is similar to a standard
'B' action.  Every part of this new action (except the ball valves and
spill units) is newly constructed.  Took me a week to cut the threads
on the individual push rods.

Particularly time-consuming was the general arrangement of striker
pneumatics and push rods: they had to align with the keys, and still
provide for the interposition of lost motion pneumatics and spill
units.  The completed action was such a thing of beauty I almost hated
to hide it under the piano!

Ampico grands are specially constructed to accommodate the various
mechanisms.  A new modern Steinway, I soon discovered, is not.  The
keybed is not open at the rear, as is a factory Ampico.  To gain access
to the rear ends of the keys, a series of slots were cut in the keybed.

This was pretty nerve-wracking, as I wasn't quite sure if I was
creating a masterpiece or ruining a perfectly good Steinway!  Also I
had to cut a strip off the rear of the keyframe to gain access to the
key ends.  I measured everything about 10 times before making a cut.

The drawer was used intact, including the rollers, except for one
modification: I didn't want to use the existing 'parallel' mechanism,
as it required further butchering of the keybed.  Instead, I devised
a system of pulleys and cables which works like a draftsman's straight
edge.  All this is out of sight and works like a charm.  The drawer
moves smoothly and without a hitch.  I had to cut off part of the lyre
mounting block to clear the drawer.

Space between the front legs was a bit shorter than required.  Legs in
their original position were set inboard by about 5/8".  By a slight
relocation outward, plus cutting off one inside corner of the upper
flange, space for the action was made available.  Legs are attached by
screws; I had to give up the standard arrangement to gain space.  None
of this skullduggery is visible; appearance did not suffer.

I took great pains to avoid marring appearance of the instrument and
arranged everything, as much as possible, to obtain a 'professional'
factory look.

The sustaining pedal pneumatic is mounted in the same position as is
normally used.  This was no problem.  However, I did have to rearrange
the trapwork to fit the narrow space between the drawer and the
pneumatic stack.

The soft pedal pneumatic and its linkage to the piano action took some
doing.  Also I had to built some special trappings into the piano
action to provide for raising the hammers for soft pedal operation.
The worst problem in all this is finding space where none is provided!

All the other parts (except the pump and motor) were arranged with no
great pain under the piano.  The pump and motor are in the next room
(the garage) with a single hose going through the wall.  I removed the
pump spill box (crescendo, etc) from the pump and mounted it under the
piano with the rest of the controls.  Overall arrangement is quite
satisfactory.

Also installed in the piano action is a felt-covered steel rail for the
purpose of limiting key travel.  This is necessary to avoid damage to
the jacks.  (A regular piano action is not constructed with the intent
of operation from the rear).

That's about it.  There were, of course, many other details to attend
to, but these are the highlights.  The project was completed about
1964.  The piano performs very nicely and I have gotten a wealth of
enjoyment from it.  I suppose it is the 'newest' Ampico in the World.