Requesting an Ampico A technician to visit Rochester, New York,
just for _evaluation_.

Hello, all -- As I have chronicled in these pages, I am in the
process of bringing my 1929 "transitional" late Model A Ampico
Marshall & Wendell grand back to life.

I have been working with Jeff Vincent, an excellent technician,
but whose knowledge is based upon the Model B, and much of the A's
technology -- especially in my strange and unfortunately rare type,
which I think was built as a clearance model -- is outside his
expertise.

I'm a professional musician -- a silent film accompanist who has
been the Resident Musician at the George Eastman Museum's Dryden
Theatre for 34 years. I've also toured exotic [locations such as]
Japan, South Korea, Los Angeles, Niles California, Bay City Michigan,
and Massillon Ohio. It is an interesting but not lucrative profession.

I bought my Ampico in 1999 from a now-extinct Rochester piano store
for $1100, which, not having that much ready cash, I financed through
the store on their own system at 4% with $100 down, making me and my
wife possibly the very last people to buy a reproducing piano "on time".

Alan Mueller rebuilt almost everything in the piano some years ago:
the stack, the crescendos, expression units etc., even its sleeve-
pneumatic amplifier (which he hated). The pump pulls over 60" vacuum,
closer to 70". Pneumatic cloth throughout is good. The wind motor has
been rebuilt twice. I have removed the reroll brake but have kept the
parts so it can be reinstalled. Mr. Vincent and I have been chasing
down every problem in the piano, but things escape us.

People have been very kind here and most helpful, but I am earnestly
requesting something more.

The system is in good shape, but needs someone to actually look at it
close and personal to recommend what else needs to be done. Mr. Mueller
is 91 and fit but long out of the game. There are three experts within
two hours' drive (one is only 20 minutes) who cannot visit. So I am
casting a long net to find anyone within 300 miles who might willingly
take a look at this. _Please._ I have somewhat limited resources, but
my wife and I can pull together something for a fee and travel expenses.

We are very fond of this instrument, but working on it is like a
short-sighted person driving without glasses; things are indistinct
but discernible. There is no literature on these models and only one
drawing of the amplifier. The pump distributor is of a design no-one
I know has ever seen and is separate from the pump. There are cut-outs
scattered all over the instrument. One of the expression units, which
seems to be working well but which I cannot test, is buried within
hoses, elbows, and the corners of other components.

If the stack needs doing, we'll do the stack. If it's the valve block,
yes. Winkers, whatever. (_Those_ aren't even hooked up currently and
their feeds are blocked off as I _know_ they need doing.) We just need
_someone_ who knows the Model A to evaluate mine and say _something_
about how to proceed. Please email me privately or write here. I am
serious about this!

Philip Carli,
Rochester, New York
carliphilip@gmail.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]