This is a report and a "thank you" for all the people who have
given us information and help in the repair of the DeBence Cremona G
nickelodeon.  We do not claim this as a restoration; some areas were
not touched if they were working properly, and the case still needs
some cosmetic work.  Our intent was to put it back in playing condition
as nearly to original as practical so our visitors could hear it as it
originally sounded.

This Cremona G is serial number 11622, the piano action carries number
7500.  We have no information about the early life of this machine, but
when Jake DeBence got it, it already had suffered some misfortune.  The
pipes and their air chest were gone. The piano air chest was missing.
The electric motor was missing. The muffler rail was gone.

The good things were that the stained glass front was intact, the pump
and roll drive were intact, and the mandolin rail was still in place.
The modulating unit and the pressure reservoirs mounted on the back
were also there.

Elizabeth started a search for a piano air chest, and about 1970 Don
Janisch provided a Cremona piano air chest from a model 10 or 20 which
Jake adapted for this model G.  The air chest had more keys and more
auxiliary valves than needed, so several functions were blocked off
and not used in this application.  The modulant unit was bypassed.
A standard appliance motor (alleged to have been from a washing
machine) was substituted for the missing motor, and Jake had it
playing.

This was the situation when the museum obtained it with the rest of
the DeBence collection in 1993.  It was displayed and played as part
of the main floor tours until January of 2014 when it was moved to
the second floor shop for work.

After posting questions on MMD we gathered a lot of necessary information
from many people about details of the work needed.  In June of 2014,
the Laura Smedley Trust, administered by PNC [PNC Financial Services
Group, Inc.], awarded us a grant to pay for having a new set of pipes
and their air chest made, and we continued on the other work needed to
bring it back to near original condition.

A new muffler rail was made, the mandolin rail was repaired, a correct
motor was mounted and the pumps were rebuilt (definitely not a fun job).
The piano air chest was reworked to provide attachment points for the
pipe pneumatics.  The modulant unit was rebuilt, and put back on line.

The piano air chest tracker bar tubing connections were moved from the
top to the bottom, out of the path of the new pipe connections for the
pipe air chest pneumatics, and so the fall board could be closed.
(When Jake adapted the piano stack he just ran the hoses in front of
and then over the top of the stack, which prevented the fall board from
closing.)  The piano air chest valves were all checked and reset to
proper clearance.  The piano action was repaired as needed.

In January of 2015, Bruce Newman of Gold Beach, Oregon, shipped us the
new violin pipes and their air chest.  Installing them around a bigger
than usual piano air chest was interesting, but accomplished.

In late March of 2015 everything was working, and the machine was
placed on our main floor to again become part of the tour.  It sounds
great.

Scotty Greene - DeBence Museum
Franklin, Pennsylvania

 [ Visit Bruce Newman's web site at http://newmanrestorations.com/
 [ and videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/DuoArtOrgan  -- Robbie