Hi MMD'ers,  I just want to pass on to everyone that I recently
installed the Gerety-Chase valve system in my Marshall and Wendell
1930 Grand, (Ampico mechanism expertly restored by Tom Zook, Zook
Mechanical Music, Casper WY).  This system is just plain fun!  I can
see that it will be a great source of pleasure for a long time to come,
and probably an incredible time sink.  Spencer needs to put a warning
label on it: 'This product is addictive!'

Installation took some woodworking, electrical, and pneumatic
knowledge. I have about 30 hours into it, which includes trying to
figure out the minimum impact to the original instrument.  There were
no modifications to the original instrument other than adding a
junction box for electrical connections (and adding a ground wire),
teeing into the drawer tubing, mounting the valve block shelf, and
replacing two valve cover boards.

Nothing was changed that can't be returned to the exact original state.
It was not necessary to turn the piano on its side, I just removed the
pedals, and crawled underneath to hook up the tubing.  The valve
assembly was pre-assembled on the bench, tested, then mounted under the
piano as a unit.

The E-valve system is transparent to the original roll player.  A paper
roll can be played in the normal way, the E-valve system does not
interfere with the performance.  In fact, a paper roll and E-roll can
be played at the same if there is a reason for doing so.

With the G/C E-roll system playing Peter Phillips recordings, one
can't know that it is not a genuine Ampico paper roll playing.  And,
there are no problems with tracking, roll slippage, false rerolls, torn
rolls, etc.  It is important that the piano and reproducing mechanism
be in good condition for it will get a lot of use; I tend to play it
for hours at a time.  We originally thought that the motor belt was in
good shape so we reused it after the rebuild, but it started shedding
rubber after about a week of use with the E-roll player.  That was
after nine months of playing paper rolls!

Spencer's support has been super and the installation package and
instruction manual are comprehensive and complete.  Thank you Gene
and Spencer for a great product (and Peter too, for the rolls).

Larry Emmons