Hi all,  I have never owned an Ampico -- we didn't have them in
South Africa.  However, I did once have the agency (for a while)
for Pianomation and I installed such a system into a 5-star hotel
named 'The Cape Sun'.

The piano was a Steinway.  It performed great and sounded excellent.
Everybody complimented me on what a good job this was and how good
it sounded.  It really did sound great!

Till today (10 years later) I feel bad about irreversibly altering
that piano.  I am an electronics engineer by trade and I design
electronics for a living but I also restore player pianos
professionally and I appreciate all things of real quality.

I can only say that electronics like a TV or Pianomation is a commodity
that passes faster than the blink of an eyelid.

A piano like an Ampico or any other old piano is a work of true
craftsmanship and the wood in there was from a real forest with
trees that grew for many years before being felled and dried for
decades, unobtainable nowadays.  The designs were not mass produced
but carefully experimented with and drawn by hand.

The electronic components we use are mass produced in factories by
machines and they are often outdated before you know it and they have
no soul like an old instrument does.

If it were a newish piano made of chipboard and plastic, then I would
not feel bad about installing a Pianomation or other electronics.

To sum it up, the Pianomation will become completely unserviceable and
no longer manufactured and then your beautiful old piano will be ruined.

In my opinion you should sell or give your old piano to someone like
me(!) and purchase a modern piano to suit the Pianomation.

Kind regards
Bernt Damm
Sydney, Australia