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 [ John Tuttle wrote in 040521 MMDigest: ]
 [> Hi All, I need your help in identifying a player action in a
 [> Clarendon piano which was manufactured by Haddorff around 1917.

Hi John:  Just happened to be browsing through the H category and
spotted the question on the mystery player action in the Clarendon by
Haddorff.  Going back over the notes on what I ran into over the years;
just a guess, but it looks like an early Strauch Bros.  It could also
be a Wood & Brooks.

From information from an elderly tuner, Wood & Brooks took an interest
early on in the booming player market and then seemingly abandoned the
project to concentrate on its primary business of manufacturing piano
keys.  This tuner, who referred much player work to me, had a one-sheet
advert (no picture) verbally describing the features of the about to be
introduced Wood & Brooks player action.  The ad was dated 1915.  If
indeed it is a W&B, they may have built a batch of units and sent them
to piano makers for evaluation.

During the late 1950's I ran into a similar action in a stencil piano
with the name Bartell Bros.  The owners had inherited the piano from
an elderly relative who lived in Montour Falls, New York, and had the
piano, bench and rolls moved to Cleveland, Ohio, about 1954.

Amazingly, the player was still operating but needed attention.  After
a thorough cleaning, retubing the tracker bar and tuning the piano, it
played extremely well.  Just from some of the construction details the
piano appeared similar to a Kurtzmann.  Checking the rolls that came
with it showed copyright dates from about 1913 to about 1922.

Hopefully this may give a little more information on the mystery player
action.

Sincerely,

Greg Davis