Anyone who has followed my occasional questions can surmise that I am
restoring my 1929ish Steinway LR Duo-Art piano (serial no. 272756.

I am working on the spool box and need some recommendations about roll
tracking.  The original Duo-Art, as I received it, has tracking ears in
the tracker bar, and the tracker bar moves sideways to track the roll.
I have been told that this works fine with recut rolls but an old or
warped roll will play beautifully just one time, as the tracker bar
tracks it faithfully, but the takeup spool causes it to self-destruct!

So here is my proposed solution.  I have a spare Duo-Art spool box that
is equipped to shift the roll so it is aligned with the tracker bar and
takeup spool, like most conventional tracking systems.  Mechanically
the only difference is the upper right bracket on the transmission.  On
my original one, there is a bracket that positions the right end of the
feed roll shaft in a fixed location.  On the spare spool box that
bracket has a cam, driven by the tracker bellows, to shift the roll
right or left.  The brackets are interchangeable!  Clever, these Duo-
Art folks.

So here are my questions:

1. Does the roll-shifting tracker system work better than the tracker
bar shifting system  to prevent damage to my old rolls?

2. Is the roll-shifting tracker system compatible with my tracker bar
with tracking ears on it, or should I also switch tracker bars for the
type that has the ears that are external and above the tracker bar?
These external tracker ears are the ones that came with the spare spoo
box that had the feed roll shifting tracking system.

3. I also have the tracking bellows that operates the feed-roll
tracking system.  It has more travel than the tracker-bar tracking
system.  Where should this bellows be located?  I do not have the rod
that ties the tracking cam to the tracking bellows.  I have to conclude
that the bellows must be located to the right of the spool box, because
I see no way for the cam-operating rod to pass across the spool box
from the left side.

4. Could you send me pictures of the bellows in place, showing the rod
that connects to the tracking cam?  I conclude that the bellows and rod
must also miss the air motor, if it is on the right.

Thanks for any and all suggestions and advice.

Pat DeWitt
Fort Wayne, IN