Dear Sirs, I have followed with mild interest the recent thread
concerning the pedal-electric Marque Ampico.  I happen to own such
a piano, which I am led to believe is now the only example here in the
UK, as the unrestored instrument to which Julian Dyer made reference
in his own recent posting on this subject was, sadly, scrapped a few
years ago following the death of its then owner.

Having acquired my Marque Ampico, I quickly found that there was
little reliable published information on this particular type of
player and my aim has therefore been, firstly, to attempt to establish
and record its intended mode of operation and variations from the
standard Ampico action, and then, secondly, to compare its actual
reproduction of Ampico rolls when compared with rolls played on my
Marshall & Wendell Ampico which has the full Ampico 'A' action.

Although I have made some progress towards these dual objectives, in
that restoration of the Marque is moving slowly towards completion,
there is still some way to go.

I confess to being somewhat of a novice as far as the Ampico action
is concerned and I have therefore relied to a great extent upon the
advice of Francis Bowdery -- an Ampico expert here in the UK -- in
unravelling the key differences embodied in the Marque mechanism.

So far, it has, with his help, been possible to compile a series of
schematic diagrams that set out the vacuum flows in all the various
states of the mechanism -- thus giving a clearer picture of how the
mechanism was intended to work.  And  I am now working on a tubing
diagram, but this will take some time to complete as my spare time
is limited.

From the work that I have already done on the Marque, it has been
possible to draw some preliminary conclusions as to its effectiveness
as a reproducing player.  My overall conclusion is that it is a pale
shadow of the full Ampico, being severely under-powered (the little
"tugboat" electric exhauster cannot seem to create sufficient vacuum
to operate satisfactorily the dynamic control mechanisms, even when
assisted by the pedals).

A fundamental design flaw, in my view, was the use of the huge Amphion
pedal exhauster mechanism which takes up two-thirds of the space below
the keybed, leaving insufficient room for an adequately-sized electric
exhauster to power the reproducing mechanism.

By comparison, Aeolian's Pedal-electric Duo-Art upright (where the
familiar compact Aeolian pedal exhauster allows the accommodation with
ease of a four-lobe exhauster and its motor alongside) represents, in
my view, a far more sensible - and effective - use of the available
space.

A second important shortcoming has been alluded to in Julian Dyer's
posting, in that both dynamic controllers lack the Crescendo pneumatic
found in the Ampico 'A' mechanism.  Thus, when a 'Slow' or 'Fast'
Crescendo is ordered from the roll, all that happens is that the
current dynamic setting is overridden and setting T4/B4 or T6/B6
(respectively) is applied.

Julian suggests that the crescendo/decrescendo effect is left to
the pianolist to provide through the pedals and this may, indeed, be
the case.  But then that hardly represents automated reproduction.
It also reinforces the view that both the electric exhauster and the
pedals must be used in combination in order to play Ampico rolls.

There are a number of other, smaller, issues that I have come across
that lead me to conclude that my Marque Ampico, when completed, will
compare unfavourably with a full Ampico, and if I am proved right,
may help to explain (along with its relatively late introduction onto
the market in the mid 1920s) why it appears to have made little or
no impact here in the UK (and perhaps elsewhere) where the highly
successful Aeolian PEDA was already dominant.

I am willing to supply (for the cost of postage) copies of the
schematic diagrams I have already compiled for my own instrument
-- and of the tubing diagram in due course -- if anyone would find
them of use.  Meanwhile, I attach a couple of photographs of my
instrument, in case they are of interest.

The first is of one of the dynamic controllers, showing the
substitution of a simple spring in place of the crescendo pneumatic.
The second shows an intriguing indicator in the spoolbox designed to
show the vacuum pressure at any moment in the main reservoir,
suggesting, again, that the pianolist is required to 'top up' the
output from the electric exhauster by working the pedals as well.
(Note that the notched adjuster alongside the pressure indicator is
for manual operation of the transposing tracker bar.)

I have not offered any more general pictures of my Marque as
it appears to be identical to the instrument pictured in the
illustrations associated with Mr. Tuttle's recent MMD posting.
I am hoping, in the longer term, to produce an article on the Marque
Ampico for publication in the UK's North West Player-piano Association
newsletter, to help offset the present dearth of published information
about this particular type of player and would welcome contact from
any other owners of Marque Ampicos (pedal-only or pedal-electric) and
to learn of their experience with this type of player.

In conclusion, can I just say that I was only alerted to this
discussion through the good offices of a colleague as my own e-mail
receipt of MMD postings has been intermittent at best and largely
non-existent in recent weeks.

Regards to all,

David Perry
Newark-on-Trent, UK

 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/20/11/07/201107_181524_Marque%20Ampico%20-%20Dynamic%20controller.JPG 
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/20/11/07/201107_181524_Marque%20Ampico%20-%20Pressure%20indicator.JPG