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MMD > Archives > March 2012 > 2012.03.19 > 05Prev  Next


Operation of Story & Clark Classic Console Player
By Tony Marsico

Thanks to John Tuttle -- his posting about the operation of the
Story & Clark Classic player piano is exactly what I was looking for.
The little micro-switches were what was throwing me off.  I am not used
to electrically operated controls.  Now I can check out the operation
and see if it's doing what it's supposed to.  It seems like such
a simple thing.

Someone suggested that one turn of paper on the bottom spool would be
the key to get the piano to play.  Maybe what confused me was that in
the Ampicos when the lever over the bottom spool falls into the groove
it tells the piano to replay or to shut off.  There must be some other
interaction between the lever and the rewind in this Story and Clark.

On reproducing pianos the tracker bar hole tells the piano to rewind.
Once the roll is rewound, if there is no turn on the bottom spool the
piano will either shut off immediately or if it is set for replay it
will go into play.

On the Classic player piano, the tracker bar hole also tells the piano
to rewind but I don't think there is a replay circuit there.  If the
tracker bar is covered, the rewind hole is covered.  So the lever that
falls into the groove in the take-up spool should just shut the piano
off if you don't have a full turn of paper on the bottom spool.
Instead, as soon as you turn on the piano it goes into rewind.

So maybe you are supposed to use the "roll forward" method of getting
a full turn of paper on the bottom spool instead of just rolling it
forward by hand.  But if I do roll the roll forward and get one turn of
paper on the bottom spool, it does start to play the roll.

I guess either method of getting one turn of paper on the bottom spool
would be okay to use as long as the lever were lifted up, right?  This
is not like resetting of some switch so the piano will start to play
the roll when you hit the pump "On" switch, by using that roll forward
switch?

That's where my confusion lies.  Why would that lever need to be lifted
in order for the player to go into play unless there was a replay
feature somewhere?  It's only function should be to turn the piano off
after the roll came off the end of the take up spool.  If the tracker
bar hole tells the piano to rewind, the lever should have nothing more
to do with it until it was time to shut the piano off.

You can see that it would confuse anyone.  If it doesn't operate like
the reproducing piano rewind and replay, is it because it's different
or is it because something is malfunctioning?  That what I was asking
myself and that's why I was looking for the operation manual.

I think Mr. Tuttle has answered the question.

Thanks,
Tony Marsico


(Message sent Mon 19 Mar 2012, 22:56:06 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Clark, Classic, Console, Operation, Player, Story

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