[ Bob Loesch wrote in MMD 160713 --

> It appears that he has a former Ampico, the player action of which
> has been removed.  I'll bet there are a lot of those out there!

Bob, that's certainly the obvious answer, but a couple of things
still bother me.  First is the decal "The Ampico".  It appears large
and in the center of the fallboard, a position normally occupied by
the manufacturers decal.  Normally, of course, it is on the treble
side of the fallboard and somewhat smaller in size.

The other thing is that it appears to me that there is a drawer front
under the keybed in one of the photos.  I can see where someone might
not be aware of there having been player components installed under
the belly of the piano, but it's hard to miss a drawer.  A stripper
would be unlikely to leave the drawer but remove everything else.

I am aware that a few very late cases that were built to receive
players, were then sold empty because of low demand.  These typically
have straight timbering and may even have holes in the timbering where
large supply hoses would have passed, but I seriously doubt the Ampico
decal would have been applied to a non-Ampico piano.  And even if that
had already been applied before the decision was made to not install
the mechanism, the reasoning I gave in the first place still applies.

John Grant