Hello everyone:  I am rebuilding my first Welte Licensee player and
have two questions.

The system is in a Canadian upright piano made by Weber of Kingston,
Ontario (not to be confused with the better known Weber of Rochester,
NY).  The serial number is 34944, which places the year of manufacture
at 1921.  There are no markings which specifically say Welte; however,
in my opinion, it is clearly manufactured by the Auto Pneumatic Action
Company.  The stack is almost identical with that made by the Standard
Pneumatic Co.

The differences that I note are the slightly larger valve stems (0.093")
and the tracking pneumatics which are like the Illus. 6-19 on page 107
of Reblitz's book except that there are two smaller pneumatics mounted
between the main ones which simply serve to center the mechanism when
the vacuum is removed during rewind.  The expression mechanisms are of
the type illustrated in the Reblitz book on page 182 Illus. 7-33 --
they are certainly not the "Original" Welte type shown in Illus. 7-32

The stack has all the components needed for complete 88-note operation.
Input to the notes not played by the Welte system are simply blanked
off at the input to the primary chest.

Did the Welte Licensee systems manufactured by the Autopneumatic Co.
ever have provision for playing all 88 notes when non-Welte playing was
selected?  If they did, were there cut-outs so that the inputs to the
notes not played by the Welte system could be rerouted to the
appropriate tracker bar positions?

There is no indication on the tubing diagrams obtained from the Player
Piano Co. that the necessary cut-outs were ever included.  My tubing
diagram is labelled "Auto Pneumatic Action Co. 653 west 51st Street,
New York City."  So far everything on this diagram agrees with what
I have, including the tracking device and all the switches.  I have
not actually started work on the expression unit but superficially,
at least, it looks to be exactly as depicted on the diagram.

One slightly curious feature of the piano is that it appears that it
was originally intended to be a foot pumped unit as the knee board is
cut out for the door giving access to the foot treadles.  The door has
been screwed shut and the actuating hardware removed (although there
is evidence that it did exist at one time).  The bottom board of the
piano, on the other hand, shows no evidence that anything other than
the Welte expression unit and the electrically driven pump were ever
mounted there.

I have no knowledge of the player actions usually installed in the
Weber (of Kingston) pianos.  I assume that they would have preferred
to use a Canadian manufacturer such as Otto Higel or Sterling Action
and Keys.  However if they used Autopiano actions they may have had
88-note units in stock when a customer made a special order for a Welte
Licensee action.  However, the tracker bar is tubed in lead, which
looks to be original, and is clearly intended for a Welte because of
the connection to the switches and to the two junctions leading to
the expression unit.

It would not be too hard to make cutouts like those found in the earlier
Duo-Arts with 88 note stacks and I am toying with the idea of making
them.  If the Welte Licensee system ever included such cut-outs does
anyone have any details?

My second question concerns the "selector chest air governor" shown on
the tubing diagram.  This is quite a small (5"x3") pneumatic with a
fairly strong spring mounted under the main board of the expression
unit.  I can find no reference to how this should be set, either in the
small booklet "How to Test and Regulate the Auto-Deluxe Welte-Mignon
Reproducing Piano" or on the test roll itself.

Does anyone know if Auto-Deluxe had any instructions regarding this
regulator?  My instinct is to set the vacuum in the selector chest at
about 20" of water lift which should give reliable operation (which,
I think, includes the sustain and soft pedal pneumatics).  I would be
grateful for any information on these topics.

Regards
John Johns
Ottawa, Canada