Dave Dewey was recently inquiring about a Stoddard Ampico system.
We have a 1916 Stoddard Ampico that was "rebuilt" before we acquired
it in the 1980s.  Actually, none of the expression components were
touched, nor was the pump, or the equalizer pneumatics.  It is still
working also, but not the way it should be.

One problem that may or may not be relevant is that in the upright
Stoddard system (that we have) is that all of the system components
are mounted onto two boards that are screwed into the side walls
of the piano case, below the keyboard.  There are channels that feed
the vacuum to the various components mounted to the boards.  A fairly
large piece of bellows cloth covers the channels I am told.

If there are cracks in this 100-year-old wood, vacuum will surely
leak out into the air and kill the system while it is trying to play
the roll.  In reroll, this system is bypassed somewhat (although the
primaries pop up and down as they are triggered in reroll).

A Stoddard grand may not have this particular mounting system, but it
is formidable to look at and to figure out how to mark all the tubes
and rods that are attached to each mechanical and pneumatic device
under the keyboard.

Good Luck!

Mike Walter
Buffalo, New York
mikew_14086@yahoo.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ David says the photos he received from the piano owner
 [ "show all new hoses & cloth; looks like a thorough rebuild."
 [ -- Robbie