Hello MMD.  At the moment I'm wondering if the output of the Aeolian
factory on Monday mornings was reserved for Australia and maybe Canada,
on the grounds that those colonials wouldn't know any better.  When I
was reassembling my first ever action, an Aeolian Metrostyle-Themodist,
about 35 years ago, I observed a fairly large hole, about 0.5" in
diameter, drilled right through the main plank (or whatever it is
called), that seemed to have no function.

I spent a while worrying about what I had forgotten, but on discovering
one of the side walls of the spoolbox sat right on top of this hole, and
there was no corresponding hole in the wall, I concluded that I was the
owner of an original factory mistake.  A couple of weeks later I began
to reassemble the transposer.  If you know how a transposer works,
don't bother to read the next paragraph.

It has two long bars rather like tracker bars except that they mate
with each other and the mating surfaces are very, very flat.  Each bar
has 88 holes in it, with 88 nipples.  When no transposing is required,
the two transposer bars are exactly aligned, and each tube from the
real tracker bar goes to the appropriate transposer nipple, with another
tube going from the other side of the transposer to the correct nipple
in the valve chest.  If it is desired to change the key of the music,
one moves a lever on the side of the spoolbox that causes one of the
transposer bars to slide sideways with respect to the other, stationary,
one.  One can effect a displacement of one, two or three holes in either
direction and thus achieve a key change of three semitones up or down.
It's very handy when one has a singing voice as cracked as mine.

Anyway I put the transposer back together exactly as it had originally
been and discovered that when the lever was in the neutral position,
the transposer holes did not line up  The holes in the moving bar were
pretty well lined up with the solid bits of the stationary bar.  Of
course I could have moved the lever away from its zero position and
made some ink marks on the scale, but I recoiled from that inelegant
solution.  Instead I made a longer lever for the back of the spoolbox
and that solved the problem .  Well almost; it still wasn't perfect,
but neither am I.  Just ask my wife.

I must say that the player has operated since very reliably, with
minimal maintenance.

But, today I thought I was going to finish gluing the even-numbered
pneumatics back onto the upper valve chest in my Aeolian Stroud.
People familiar with an Aeolian action will know very well that each
pneumatic is glued to a thin leather gasket that runs the length of the
pneumatic rail but is also secured to the capstan rail with a small 3
gauge (I think) wood screw.  Getting the pneumatic in position with glue
on it and the wood screw inserted and the pneumatic clamped before the
glue gels requires a bit of fast hopping about!

I had finished No. 84 and tried No. 86, without glue fortunately, and
discovered that it was going to be rubbing against 84.  To fix this
will mean shifting the hole in the wood of No. 86 about 1 mm.
sideways.  That's always a pain, and I've already had to do it once
down at the bass end of the valve chest.  These pneumatics, to the best
of my ability are going back exactly where they came from.  I realize
that the design of the Aeolian action does not call for extreme
precision in the placement of the pneumatics but having them touch each
other is a bit much, and I think they had always touched!

My question is: to whom do I write a letter of complaint or, failing
that, can anyone put me in touch with a reliable medium?

Now I feel a lot better, and the wood filler has probably set, too.
(I feel even better to see that Eudora has awarded me with two chili
peppers because I'm using the word "nipple" quite a lot.)

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania