There seems to be some variation in Duo-Art pianos in Australia.
Can I throw something into the mix?

1. There may well have been USA manufactured Duo-Art pianos in
Australia.

2. There were also very many _English_ Duo-Arts imported into
Australia because, at the time, Australia was indeed a member of
the British Commonwealth and national feeling was very much inclined
towards 'Mother England'.

3. In his book, Art Reblitz, on page 174, refers to Aeolian deciding
to cease fitting pneumatics to 1-4 and 85-88 in Duo-Art pianos and thus
were able to save on manufacturing costs.  It is conceivable that this
philosophy spread to England.

4. I have an English Steck foot-pumped upright Half Duo-Art.  It has
two sets of 4-function cutout pouches.  It has a transposing bar in
the air lines between the tracker bar and the stack.  All 88 notes go
through the transposer.  It also has the device known as the 'Temponamic
Lever'.  (This single control knob combines Tempo adjustment and
Accompaniment loudness by rotating the knob.)

I have never played a Duo-Art roll with the transposer out of its
'correct' position.  To me the transposer is an unwieldy and difficult
to move contraption that is fairly useless.  I resurfaced the surfaces
only to maintain the completeness of the piano.

5. The Steck Half Duo-Art piano plays full scale 88-note rolls, Duo-Art
rolls and Themodist rolls.

6. The cutout pouches are mounted as described by Bernt Damm.

7. I find the cutout pouches work well and have not been dismantled.
As part of a project to play Ampico rolls on my Recordo, I have
fabricated a set of cutout pouches and they work well.  A high degree
of surface flatness is required.

8. If the transposer tubing is tied off this would probably be because
the stack has a full complement of 88 pneumatics.

7. My feeling is, given that Bernt's machine has the 88 notes, then
fabricate a set of cutout pouches and put the piano back as it was.

8. Aeolian must have had a reasonable operation in Australia.  Only
recently I came across a 'Stroud' foot pumper and the name on the iron
frame said "Aeolian - Australia".  There was a piano factory in Australia
until only recently -- Wertheim.  I have no doubt that piano frames
were cast in this country.

Greetings to all from Melbourne, Australia.

Paul Rumpf