First of all I would like to indicate that I used the wrong word for
my last post.  'Re-regulator' should read 'Modulator'.  I am writing
from memory right now, which can be a problem with me.

Second of all, Bruce Clark warns that many small leaks leads to one
large leak.  This is one of the more important things to look out for
with player work.  With all your talk about a leak here and there, this
indicates that some work needs to be done.  But I don't think that it
is your current problem.

When you talked about only having 10" of vacuum with all the tracker
holes open, I ignored this in my response.  This is true for many
players.  With all the bleeds taking in air for all 88 notes, and with
the pouches partially lifting the valves off of their seats, this makes
for one very large leak.  This might not be the case if the regulator
and accordion pneumatics were working right and trying to give 60" of
vacuum to the stack but I think you are not getting the right vacuum
levels to the regulator.

Thirdly, D. L. Bullock is very right that the pump can give 120 inches
of vacuum but this is measured by closing the intake of the pump
completely.  When measured while playing in the piano, it is much more
at the levels of 40" like you have given.

The one thing that I don't understand is his statement, "If you have
even a pinhole leak anywhere in the system, it will not play."  This
statement is very misleading.  It takes a very large leak to stop the
Duo-Art player from playing completely but small leaks in certain areas
do affect the expression of the playing, so I don't think this is the
problem in Thomas's case.

Thomas writes, "The left pedal bellow is a generic bellow bought from
Player Piano Company."  This doesn't make sense to me at all.  If this
one of those rare pedal-electric players, you would certainly want the
left foot pneumatic to be exactly like the right one.  These pedal
pneumatics are not the easy to replace.  I didn't know that PPCo
offered this type of replacement.

Something that comes to mind if this player does have pump pedals, you
might check the condition of the leather, both inside and outside of
the pedal bellows.  If they are old and ripped out due to normally
being played with the electric motor, this might be your big leak.

Pete Knobloch
Tempe, Arizona (USA)