[ Don teach wrote in 170701 MMDigest

> Something's wrong.  My guess is since you have a pneumatic with no
> note associated with it that you have the stack decks mixed up or
> not in the right position.

That is exactly what we thought.  This is the first time the instrument
has been dismantled from new.  We bought it from a lady whose father
had it and operated it back in the 1980s.

It would not be possible to reverse the stack decks, if for no other
reason than the vacuum feed for the upper deck is connected directly to
a hole in the lower deck cover.  One cannot fit pneumatics to any place
other than the holes provided in the aluminum decks, and the area where
the break comes has no such holes.  Indeed, there is a valve there
which is used for another purpose.  Even if one could reverse the stack
decks, it would not correct the problem.

As you are no doubt aware, the feeds for the xylophone pneumatics are
taken from the tops of the relevant piano pneumatics.  Only 23 of them
have these feeds fitted.  There is nowhere for an additional pneumatic
to be fitted to play top A.  So I am afraid the matter has to be laid
at the door of the original manufacturer.  I am guessing they fitted a
stack intended for another instrument in their range, for what reason,
who knows.

Thanks,
David Evans - Nickelodeon Museum
4920 Bench Road, Cowichan Bay, BC, V0R 1N1, Canada
Ph: 1-250-746-5652