Some years ago I purchased from Larry Broadmoore a gutted 5 ft. 8 in.
Chickering Ampico.  It was an early 1920's piano with good potential
and I had the piano restored here.  It is a very nice piano and my wife
plays it continuously.

What we want is to have a really good Ampico grand, but we have never
found anything suitable in Australia.  One great problem here in
Australia is the lack of player piano restorers.  Unfortunately the
exchange rate between our countries makes the purchase of another
instrument from the USA a very difficult exercise, so we must build on
what we have until this changes, if ever.

I can obtain at a cost of US$2,000 an Ampico Grand mechanism: late
1927, Model A, from a Chickering, adaptable to other brands, has flange
finger stack, pedal compensation, very complete including belly cloth,
and in fine unrestored shape.  The only problem with this is that the
drawer I now have in place is in excellent condition.  I'm not sure
about the stack that I have.

I had an Ampico action purchased from Bill Koenigsberg which was in
thousands of pieces.  Over a period of time I have made efforts to mate
the pieces to the Chickering.

I have Ampico expression and crescendo units unrestored, and numerous
other bits and pieces.  I even have a set of adjustable Stoddard Ampico
expression units.  The Ampico pump I have is possibly out of an upright
but I would prefer to have a "remote" pump and not install it in the
piano at all.

I think I have nearly all the parts in boxes.  I have an unrestored
Ampico pump and amplifier which I think is from an upright.  The drawer
has been rebuilt and is in place in the piano and looks good.  We do
not have electricity in the traditional sense but rather run the house
and utilities by generators and solar power.  Our voltage is 32 v DC.
I have 1/4-horsepower 32-volt DC electric motors available.

Here at Aberfeldy it is a fairly isolated existence.  Our electricity
supply is 32 volt D.C.; obviously for video, computer, etc., we invert
the current to 240 V.A.C.  Our nearest neighbours are four miles away,
the post office twenty five miles (one hours drive through the moun-
tains), and the supermarket is fifty miles travel.  We have three
children at home, so you can appreciate that music plays a large part
in our lives.

The stack with its pneumatics has been rebuilt and is in the piano.
I am not convinced that the brackets and poppets are exactly correct,
but they are all in place.  The stack is "Amphion upside down valve",
I think you call it.  The valves are in a box, rebuilt, but not set
or installed.

I have numerous spare parts including a set of Stoddard expression
units. I even have a set of Duo-Art valves, a Duo-Art tracker bar,
a Duo-Art upright stack and a Duo-Art upright expression box.  To
complete the restoration I can shift the piano to either Melbourne or
Sydney or anywhere in-between, or even to Adelaide, for that matter.

It would of course be great to have the Chickering play as a late
1920's instrument with all the improvements, but making it all happen
seems almost impossible.  We have even given thought to installing
PianoDisc in it.

Are there any suggestions how I can, at a reasonable cost, restore this
instrument to full playing condition?

Regards,

Grahame Code
Aberfeldy, Victoria, Australia

 [ Welcome to MMD, Grahame.  We have more than a dozen subscribers
 [ in Australia; I'm sure they can offer advice about local player
 [ technicians.  Good luck with the Ampico!  -- Robbie