A piano tuner to the north of me was asked to restore an English
Broadwood player recently. He has done the piano part and asked me
to do the player part and has delivered the internals. The roll drive
motor, tracker and bottom stack look like Strauch but the top stack
isn't like other Strauchs I've seen. For some reason the half blows
have been discarded and a single (Pratt-Read, I think) pneumatic fitted
above the action. All the control buttons have been discarded. The
split hammer rail has been modified to a very well made single rail.
Why anyone would bother is beyond me.
Anyone any clues as to what Broadwood originally used ?
Neil Davidge
Grafton, New South Wales, Australia
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