For Travis Martin's question: That piano is a Chickering Duo-Art with
an Ampico B drawer, presumably to play the post merger Duo Art jumbo
rolls. I can't tell whether it is a Duo-Art stack or an Ampico B
stack. Both would have been winded from the ends in that era. It is
covered with a narrow belly cloth like the B stacks were.
Yes, Travis, after the 1932 merger of Aeolian Corporation and American
Piano Company, there were Duo-Arts found in B drawers, under
Chickering, Mason Hamlin, Knabe and others. There were also Ampico
B's found in Wheelock and other Aeolian pianos. I have seen these
occasionally. I have restored two Wheelocks with an Ampico B drawer
and stack, but with A mechanisms.
It is really fun to restore these post merger instruments as you can
get Ampico and Duo-Art parts, here and there willy-nilly, and when all
is assembled they all work together. Over twenty years ago I saw a
large Mason, I believe in Houston, with a B drawer and a Duo-Art in it.
It had a separate box with Ampico spoolbox and mechanism so the piano
could play both Ampico and Duo Art rolls. I wonder if someone here
still has that piano.
D.L. Bullock St. Louis
www.thepianoworld.com
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