Hi,  In 1986, the first player piano I rebuilt was a 65/88 similar
to that one you described.  It had a small lever on one side of
the spoolbox to shift from the older 65-note system to the 88-note
"standard".

The piano was a large upright Heintzman with a very big double-valve
three-tiers Metalnola system in it.  I'm sorry at that time I wasn't
taking pictures of my jobs cause that one was something to see.

Shifting between the 65n and 88n standards was made with the help of
two heavy brass plates that slid against each other and were lubricated
with a type of grease used by plumbers.  A stationary plate had both
sets of tracking bar hoses connected to it.  The moving plate had slots
facing the holes of the stationary plate but allowing only one set of
hoses from the tracker bar to be in use at a time.  Soldered to its
back was a set of 88 nipples for standard tracking bar hoses going to
the first primary valves.

The piano was equipped with "Solodant" so the rolls played had snake
bites, and it had auto-sustain too.  Roll tracking was the regular
four holes pneumatic system, no transposer.  It had soft-bass and
soft-treble but no pneumatics to move parts of a split hammer backrest.
The soft effect was made by changing the pressure on the left or the
right half of the Metalnola system with the help of regulators attached
to the pump with the "Solodant" regulators and valves.

A peculiar thing about that piano was the striker bellow's coverings.
They were not covered with the usual rubberised nainsook pneumatic
material but all done with high quality medium thick cream colour
pneumatic leather.  Most of them, although very old, were still in
pretty good shape after all.  It was the same leather used by many
organbuilders between 1890 and 1920.

That piano seemed to have been made around 1920.  All the hoses were
goners -- dried-up and falling apart like dried macaroni -- and the
piano didn't seem to have been refurbished or releathered in the past
since I never saw that quality of pneumatic leather in anything made
after 1924.  I releathered it all as the original.

I was asked if I could refurbish that player because both player piano
repairmen that worked in my corner of the world refused to take the
job, saying it was too much work for what it pays.  Nobody wanted to
take it.  Since the owner was an acquaintance of a friend I accepted to
take the challenge.  I did it as a hobby, on my spare time, outside my
pipe organ business, and that's what brought me to player piano repairs
since then.

I think if I had the means to get it I'd go to that thrift store in
California and buy that one for myself!

Gilles Chouinard, organbuilder
Laval, Quebec, Canada
gcorg@aol.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]