Just some comments on the piano moving.  I had been looking to obtain
a player piano to tear down and see how it worked.  I went into one
of our local Goodwill stores and there was one that had the cabinet
refinished and it was walnut and looked great.  I looked inside and
it was the usual dusty, not maintained, works.  They wanted $300.00
and, as everyone knows, you can go to Craigslist and find one for free
on any day.  The good thing was there were six big boxes of rolls,
several hundred with the piano and a matching bench, so I purchased it.

I went home and did a search for local piano movers and as it turned
out it cost the same to move the piano six miles to my home.  Two guys
picked it up and sat it on a larger wheeled dolly and got it on the
truck.  When they got to my house they put down a piece of plywood to
get to the porch and rolled it into the living room and sat it off the
dolly.

Now I started to take the piano apart with lots of instruction from
Mr.  John Tuttle.  I had taken all the player mechanics out and had
taken the piano back out on the porch to blow the dust out with
compressed air.  I noticed that the bottom of the piano had separated
at the glue joints and several screws were missing.  The bass bridge
was also in two pieces; a factory glue joint had separated.

All other joints looked good so I laid the piano on its back and took
the bottom off and with a biscuit jointer I cut and joined the four
boards back together with lots of glue and clamps.  I then refinished
it in the flat black and put back on.  While the piano was on its back
I also removed the wheels and cleaned and greased them and reinstalled
them.

I do not know if the movers caused the bottom boards to separate or
just years of heat, cold, damp and dry did the damage.  When these
pianos were first made they were shipped, many by rail, without any
climate control and all was good.  I actually live in the town where
the Dampp-Chaser is made and it is for areas like where I live, where
you have to run a dehumidifier all the time and gallons and gallons of
water are taken out each day and it is still too moist.  This would be
Western North Carolina.

I am in China now and enjoy reading everyone's questions and comments.
When I go back home in August 2014 I will start back on my piano
project and will have lots of questions I am sure.  One that has not
been answered by myself or Mr. John Tuttle is the producer of the piano
I have.  Since the cabinet had been refinished the decals were gone.
There was nothing under the keys or inside the cabinet anywhere.  There
is no name cast into the frame inside.  All I know is that the player
is a Pratt-Read and the works I took out had a Pratt- Read label on it.
Did they actually build complete player pianos or just supply parts?

As a closing comment, why are we so careful and picky with these
beautiful machines?  When we are gone our families will have them on
Craigslist and will end up paying someone to take them or back to
Goodwill.

I have not seen anything here in China mechanical-music-wise.  I found
only one antique store and it was selling a little furniture and some
silk wall art.  Does anyone know of anything in China?

David F. Fowler
Wuhu City, Anhui Province, China