I recently acquired a 1925 Haines Bros. small grand Ampico A and my son
and I love playing rolls.  He also loves playing manually and is pretty
good. :-)  The Ampico was playing great (with a few minor glitches as
expected with an instrument this old) for about a month.  I then sent
out the action for new bushings, followed up by a tuning/voicing.

While it was out, I had some cabinet repairs done to a leg, hinge,
casters, and the wood panel on the front of the Ampico A.  The movers
did a good, safe job, placing it on its side and setting back up.
The only traumatic part of the process was that I had trouble removing
the face board on the front of the player (who knew that it moved
left-to-right on its pins instead of up-and-down!).

Why have I provided all of this history?  I don't believe much in
coincidences.  After the tuning, the piano sounds fantastic.  However,
the player plays too slowly, way too slowly, maybe not even half speed.

I joined AMICA and this web site and starting reviewing the archives:
transmission frames, governor vacuum regulator, tempo slide,
transmission frame, leather nuts on the leaf spring are all things
discussed.  I'm new and a good bit overwhelmed by all of this.  My son
and I are disappointed about the situation as we were absolutely loving
the player.

I'm certain something went wrong with the player during either the
moving of it or the repairs, and can only conclude if we (I) hadn't
messed with it, then it may be out of tune with looser keys, but
otherwise working just fine as when we got it (Christmas Eve).

I'll note that the Tempo regulation switch really never seemed to work
or do much of anything on this player, so it may have already been
defective, but the player is playing _very_ slowly; I'd estimate at
half speed, but that's a wild guess.  Prior to this the rolls played
fine and sounded great.

1.  Are there any obvious things a newbie could do to at least
troubleshoot if not fix?

2. Do you know anyone near my area (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA) who
might be able to take a look and troubleshoot and advise and possibly
repair the unit?

I'm pretty handy and a good learner, I just don't want to have the unit
apart for a long time and be tinkering with it for months.  I'd rather
have someone with experience sit in the driver's seat, fix it, and have
us back up and running quickly.  I bought a bunch of rolls from eBay
that I can't wait to play.  Bummer!

I can make it worth someone's time to come out and work on the unit.
There are a number of other minor problems to repair (right pedal not
hitting player lever properly, one or two keys that won't play, Tempo
control doesn't seem to work).

I did order both books by Arthur Reblitz, but again, I'm just
overwhelmed.

Thanks,

Dan Tamburro