I once looked at a Steinway Duo-Art on Central Park West in New York
City: Louis XV case, in beautiful walnut; the serial numbers puts
it at 1932. It had an Ampico drawer with a Duo-Art tracker and fan
accordions.
It seems to me that, rather than produce extended case pianos that can
only be used for players, Steinway and other former Duo-Art marques
would just modify standard-case pianos to make players. I imagine
there were plenty of spare parts around for both the Duo-Art and the
Ampico mechanisms as the popularity wound down.
Arthur Marino
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