John A Tuttle said:

> Hi All,  Maybe Don Teach and I should see if we can work out some
> details about listing these player actions that he and others don't
> want. I get emails on a regular basis asking me where they can find
> player actions for their gutted players. So far, keeping an inventory
> which includes manufacturer, scale design, asking price, etc., has
> proven to be time consuming and unprofitable.

I'm on the Usenet group rec.music.makers.piano which is mostly
inhabited by repairers, tuners, learners and a very few professional
pianists, and it's surprisingly common for people to come on there
asking where player actions, usually for quite humble machines most
of us wouldn't look at twice, can be obtained so their prize purchase
can be restored to its proper state.  How would you ever manage any
operation to meet this very limited market ?  You'd need a huge
warehouse and the income would be minute.

Away back in the 1970s I had a very old concert grand Steinway rebuilt
in what turned out to be a fruitless attempt to improve its tone.  This
was because of the design of the soundboard and not the fault of the
rebuilders, who employed Steinway men moonlighting and rather enjoying
their evening contact with Bluethner (London) men who were also
moonlighting.  You could learn about either make with great facility
-- the aliquot (fourth string) Bluethners were still in production and
along with old ones, some came in there for prep.  They all worshipped
Art Reblitz, by the way.

The knowledge in there was formidable, but it included the truism that
player actions don't improve an instrument's chance of selling in the
wider marketplace.  So a good player would be retained -- there was some
preference for reproducing actions -- but one with a spent action would
be gutted.  A line of stacks stood on the landing of the huge depository
where they worked, waiting to be hauled off.  Apprentices used to smoke
there, and stick screwdrivers into the crisp old pneumatics.

I noticed an action being taken out of a very standard late British
Steck upright and, needing one of the large-pneumatic motors and a few
other pieces on it, asked if I could take it away.  They agreed and it
languished, motorless, in my garage for some time.

Then I happened to visit Steve Cox, then producing "Play-Time" recut
rolls and overhauling players, and he showed me a British Weber plain
88-note pedal upright.  It had been exceedingly stubborn to repair and
get right, and in the end he had lost his temper with it and jumped up
and down on the stack, screaming.  Then he threw the stack into his
garden and set fire to it.  A week later a client had walked in, tried
the piano, liked it and said he'd buy it for a good price provided it
had a player action in.  Had I any suggestions ?

I said, "Try my Steck stack," and on my next visit delivered it.  Steve
measured it up and found that the mounting holes were exactly right but
with the wooden projections on the end, the stack was an inch oversize.

He sawed off half an inch at each end, lifted the stack up and lowered
it in.  The mounting bolts slid straight in and no adjustment was
needed on any of the wippens.  It just needed reclothing and new
pouches throughout, and a replacement motor, of course.

He recovered fast enough from this stroke of luck to become very
commercial over the price, but that's another story ...

Dan Wilson, London