Hello, I am a piano technician in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  A school
I tune for has recently been given a 1919 Steinway O with a Duo-Art
player mechanism.  I know next to nothing about player pianos.  Most
of the instrument seems to be in relatively decent shape, but the
player is toast, as evidenced by the many crumbled bits of tubing
that fell out when I opened it.

In the interest of providing the school with a serviceable instrument,
I'd like to pull out the player and I am wondering if any of you know
of reasons not to (e.g., that's an incredibly valuable year or model,
that sort of thing, or other factors unforeseeable to me).

My reasons for wanting it out are, besides the fact that I know I'll
never be able to get it working, it's in the way of the action, and the
bottom of the piano is sealed off in a fabric enclosure which dampens
the tone considerably.  In the event that the school wanted to sell it
to a restorer, should I try to save and catalogue the various player
parts?  Does anyone out there use them?  In the meantime, can someone
describe to me the best method of disengaging the player in order to
get at the piano action?

Sorry, I know this is a lot of questions.  Thanks for any help you can
throw me.

Robert Rothschild
Santa Fe, New Mexico
santafepianos@gmail.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]