An open letter to those attaching pneumatics
  with RTV silicone adhesive

In another era you did the trendy thing to your player piano and when
the piano tuner decided he did not want to spend an extra few minutes
to tune behind the spoolbox, he suggested:

  "I can take that thing out for you.  Nobody is using those old timey
  rolls anyway.  I just did that for the Robinsons two blocks away last
  week.  Besides, it ruins the tone of the piano."

We did the trendy thing and let him take away the stack, making that
a gutted player piano that no longer sits in the company of player
pianos, being silent forever.

In another era the trendy thing was to fix pneumatics with bathtub
caulk and get the remaining players into playing condition.  It was
trendy to do this and to install clear plastic tubing.  Folks also
installed Naugahyde on the bellows and installed the Electrolux which
sang louder than the piano could play.  This lasted for a short period
of time and then the piano quickly joined the ranks of non-playing
players.

Today it looks like the trend is to use RTV, PVA, liquid nails, or
whatever new-fangled high-tech adhesive there is in order to do an
otherwise acceptable restoration.  Let's face it, whatever they use
RTV for, in high temperatures, or in extremely low temperatures,
it is still glorified bathtub caulk.  The trend is to use these new
fangled doodads, or in this case "goo dads", to spiff up that old
player piano.  And like the earlier version of bathtub caulk it will
work for a while.

Perhaps you got good pneumatic cloth when you rebuilt it and it lasts
25-30 years but what if you didn't want to spend the extra money and
got the cheaper pneumatic cloth on there.  It only lasts 10 years.
So in the future, the piano plays for 10 years and then the next guy
tears into it to find he can't get the pneumatics off and if he does
there is nothing in the world that will stick them back.

Well, the EPA took RTV off the market for environmental concerns several
years previously and he barely finds one product that will stick them
on.  It sticks great but it just lasts two years before the chemical
reaction begins and all the pneumatics fall off.  Once again this piano
is counted a total loss and the stack is tossed out.  The piano joins
the ranks of non-player pianos.

Well, everything above has taken its toll.  Because someone was
unwilling to learn to use hot hide glue and other traditional materials
used and re-used on felt, leather, wood, and rubber cloth for over 100
years, and because they had their stack removed, or used short lived
products or non compatible products in the "rebuild" of the players,
these cases are out there.  Keep on screwing up players beyond the
capability of most folks to repair or reverse your "improvements" and
there are and will be fewer and fewer player pianos out there.

Perhaps I should be upset.  I am not.  Every one of those players you
use that stuff on will eventually relegate that piano to the dumpster
at some point.  It may be sad but I am not upset with that because my
correctly restored players and those of my customers get more valuable
with each player that gets gooped.  I have been in this business long
enough to see the value of a working player piano go from a couple
hundred dollars to several thousand and a completely restored like-new
player piano attain the value of tens of thousands of dollars.  I still
see and hear of players being trashed regularly.

These trends will make my pianos worth more and more money as the total
number out there dwindles to those few that were restored correctly and
still play as they were intended to play.  I project the value of these
and other older pianos such as square grands and art case pianos around
or over 100 years old to greatly go up in value in the not too distant
future.  I can easily see these once throwaway pianos be valued around
$100,000.00 before most of us leave this world.

So keep on gooping guys -- you will make me very wealthy.  Thanks.

D.L. Bullock
www.dougbullock.ws