Hello everyone.  First I want to thank those who responded to my quest
for an Ampico take-up spool.  I got one from Massachusetts sent to me
in Los Angeles and installed it in the piano yesterday.  It worked
great.

The lady who had mysteriously lost hers was delighted.  I asked her
for another roll to test in the piano and she pulled four of them out
of a chest under the piano and all of them played great.  She then
said, "I'll check once more while you are here."

She went to the chest and opened it up as I was looking into it.
I couldn't believe what I saw.  There was her original take-up spool
complete with half a roll wound up on it and the music roll containing
the other half.  I said to her, "Do you know what that is?"  Imagine
her embarrassment when she realized what it was.

A year ago when I began the quest for a spool at her request she had
assured me that she had looked everywhere in the house for the spool
when it came up missing.  She says that apparently the last person to
work on the piano had removed both spools to fix something and she did
not know it was in there.

The moral of this story is obvious.  I hope you can learn from it as
I did.  She now has an Ampico model A take-up spool for sale.  It's the
type with the airtight bearing in the end.  It works great by actual
test.  Contact me if you need one and I'll put you in touch with her.

Harmonically yours,
Mark Greisen