I just acquired a very interesting early Philipps DUCA reproducing
piano in a rare and beautiful keyless case.  Although my main interest
is more in the orchestrion field, I still have a strong interest in
reproducing pianos.  Being very familiar with the very common
reproducing systems like Duo-Art, Ampico, Hupfeld DEA, Welte red and
Welte green, the Philipps Duca was due to its rarity always somewhat
of a mystery to me.  Even in Germany, Duca instruments are very rare
and little is known about them.  During my first research, I was not
able to locate very much information over here.  But back to the
instrument --

Inside the case is a fantastic Feurich piano of high quality, very
powerful and expressive.  The former owner spend a lot of time in
restoring the instrument and, I have to admit, he did quite a good job!
But due to the lack of information he never found out how to adjust
the expression pneumatics properly.  So in the end he was somewhat
disappointed about the DUCA system and finally decided to sell it.

After spending several days (and nights) to work on the expression
units, the Duca started to perform extremely well.  I am amazed about
its musical abilities; most of the rolls sound amazingly well.  The
design of the expression units is very similar to the Welte expression
system, and the actual performance realized has turned out to be so
satisfying that I will try to find out more about the Duca.

It would be highly appreciated if anybody can come up with some
information about the Duca.  Although I got a good collection of rolls
with it, I am still looking for more DUCA rolls.

Within the next weeks, I will try to publish all the information I have
about the Duca (and pictures!) at my web site, www.maesto.com .  Any
owners of Duca instruments can be aware of the fact, that I will as
well offer new Duca rolls in the very near future.

Best regards,
Tom Jansen
Musikwerkstatt Monschau
http://www.maesto.com/