Luke Myers wrote in 160203 MMDigest:

> The reason is that the pneumatics on the early model have completely
> unnecessary openings in the back, that should have never been there
> in the first place!

Craig Smith added in 160204 MMDigest:

> It's very tempting to blame a design error when you can't figure out
> why something old (or new) doesn't work as you would like it to, but
> there is no way that the Steger Company would have sold a non-working
> player piano.

I can add that as we restore items we are continually faced with the
question of how original is the part we are looking at, and does it
fail because it was improperly repaired or is it worm past operating
tolerances.  As an engineer I am sometimes tempted to think the design
was incorrect, but experience has shown that this is almost never the
case.

It is also true that later materials are seldom superior to the
originals.  There have been several cases where new "better" materials
have been marketed and used only to discover several years down the
road that they are a disaster.

The takeaway is that if it is original it did indeed work, and you
are probably not going to improve the design or the materials used.
If someone before you messed it up then you better ask on MMD for
advice about how it was originally done before you take off on your
own.

Scotty Greene
DeBence Museum
Franklin, Pennsylvania