-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD --

Hi,  I've been reading your Archives for a few weeks now and they're
very informative and helpful.  A few weeks ago I acquired a 1912
(ser. no. 72799) Weber Aeolian Pianola Themodist Metrostyle Temponamic
Upright piano for free!  And it is, except for some problematic instances, 
in incredible condition.  A lot of money had been put into it back in
March 1965 to have the whole upper player mechanism professionally
rebuilt. The guy did an incredible job; so good he signed and dated his
work on the #1 key on the keyboard (which is how I know it was 3/65).

Unfortunately, whoever asked him to do the work wasn't nearly as
concerned about what was going on underneath the key bed.  It seems
that all they wanted was for the unit to play 88-note rolls and nothing
else.  The Themodist control tubing is gone as is the control tubing
for the sustain and soft pedal pneumatics.

You'd think my question would be a simple, "So is there a tubing
diagram for this player piano?"  Well, it isn't quite...

The description of the piano I gave (above) is exactly what it says
on the decals.  However, in all the reading I've done trying to learn
about the player's components, it seems this player is essentially
a Duo-Art Reproducing player, or something close to it.  For example,
when I read the 1925 article "On Playing The Pianola" by Reynolds,
I came to the section "The Electric Duo-Art Pianola" and found an
illustration of an upright Weber with exactly my key slip control
layout:

 A- Themodist lever
 B&E- Accent levers
 C- Graduated accompaniment or Temponamic disc
 D- Gear lever "Reroll, Silent, Play" (except on mine the word 'Play'
    reads 'Normal')

In the illustration, the fall board decal has the word "Duo-Art".  And
it's electric!  My fall decal says 'Pianola' but without the 'Duo-Art'.

Hmmm, the plot thickens. I didn't mention that mine is also electric as
well as pedaled.  I'm not positive it came from the factory with a motor
because the one that's in there now is a homemade job utilizing a high
quality vacuum cleaner motor and a 1 gallon paint can as a housing.  It's
an ingenious piece of work, almost as if someone saw it in a Popular
Mechanics article, "How To Replace Your Aging Pianola Motor For Pennies".
The electrical cord way pre-dates 1965 so I know it wasn't done then.

The reason I think it probably came from the factory with a motor is
because there is a perfectly bored hole for the hose in the front of
the right side pump bellows.  It doesn't look home made.  On the other
hand, I don't see screw holes, etc., anywhere inside the cabinet where
the original motor would've been attached.  Maybe someone just added it
on because they wanted to simulate a Duo-Art?

Okay, so far it resembles an upright reproducing piano, home-made motor
not withstanding, but when I look at the illustration in Reblitz's book
(p. 174) it indicates there are supposed to be two devices called
"accordion pneumatics".  Well, I don't have those.  Admittedly, that's
an illustration for a grand piano, but on page 100 he gives illustration
6.1 as an example of "the Aeolian (Duo-Art) upright stack: front view &
rear view".  These two photos are almost identical to what I have
except:

- There are _three_ rows of pneumatics in the picture; mine has only two.

- Whatever are numbers 3 & 2 in the front view, they aren't on mine.

- Device #11 is more elaborate than mine, which only has seven brass
nipples (vs. 16?).

- The two black boxes below and to the right and left of the spool box
aren't on mine.  These are probably the two accordion pneumatics.

- My tracker bar isn't as elaborate as the Duo-Art version. It doesn't
have the two sets of four expression holes above the main hole row and
it is missing one or two other holes at either end.

I think that covers the differences.

I guess my question is, why doesn't the player in my piano match any
of the given illustrations or descriptions?  It's kind of like neither
fish nor fowl.  Is it a Duo-Art reproducing piano or perhaps an
"expression" piano?  Is an expression piano some sort of hybrid?  From
the description on page 172 of Reblitz's book, it sounds like I might
need an "upright tubing print (#C-22X, useful for early uprights
only)".  Do you sell those or do you know where I might purchase one?

Thanks in advance for your time and patience with this long email.
I really appreciate it!

S.M. Clark
Petaluma, Calif.