The following is in response to several recent emails sent to me.
I apologize for not individually answering all the questions sent to
me.  I currently handle about 150 emails a day.  Please review past
postings to MMDigest about Seeburg.

 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/S/seeburg.html ]

Seeburg pianos were one of the more consistent brands of coin-operated
pianos, however there are many variations even in the same model
depending on which year it was made.

Seeburg A-roll pianos that originally had an extra instrument (pipes or
xylophone) have a pump with a crankshaft of 5/8-inch diameter and those
that did not have extra instruments have a crankshaft 1/2-inch in
diameter.

In pianos that had an extra instrument the action stack has a place
in it for nipples to supply the note valves of the extra instrument(s).
The part where these nipples are placed in the stack is larger than the
part in those that did not have the extra instrument.  In late-style
stacks the backboard that the deck rails are screwed into is thicker or
wider to accommodate these nipples.

"Seeburg used green stain for the player parts."

This statement is partially true depending on the year it was made, as
early Seeburgs used a green stain on the player parts and gradually
changed to painting the parts black.  Some orchestrions exist which
have a nice red stain on parts above the keyboard and green stain on
the parts below the keybed.

"Seeburgs had a rewind button on the spoolframe."

Some did and some did not.  If you think your instrument once had a
rewind button then there will be two screw holes on the left spool
frame casting, most likely on the part that holds the tracker bar.

"Seeburg used several different mandolin attachments."

The point is that yes, they were consistent during the years that those
models were made and they made small changes over the years.

"Tubing diagrams do not exist for any Seeburg coin piano."

Even the tubing diagrams that have been made in recent years are not
correct for every piano.  As the piano mechanisms are being restored,
the experienced restorers make notes of what each mechanism does and
how it does its job.  They then use the tracker scale to tube the
instrument.  It makes sense that the valve closest to the mandolin
pneumatic is tubed to the mandolin, and the valve closest to the soft
pedal is used for the soft pedal pneumatic, and so on.  Of course,
there may be an exception as in the early KT Special.

The valve box in the Seeburg that has two chambers in it with two
separate vacuum sources would be the valve box for the accumulator.
The coin accumulator in a Seeburg has two pneumatics in it: one counts
the coins and the other cancels the credits to turn off the machine.
Only the pneumatic that credits the coins needs vacuum all the time,
as the pneumatic that cancels the credits turns off the electricity
to the mechanism and could cause the piano to shut off during its
rewinding of the music roll.

In some small pianos the soft pedal comes on with the mandolin
using the mandolin control perforation in the music roll, as the soft
perforation controls the soft regulator on the vacuum regulator box.

Don Teach
Shreveport Music Co.
Shreveport, Louisiana