There have been a few requests for more information about my Ampico
upright with the "B" expression system so I thought I would write
this up for those who are interested.  The piano was also written
up in the June/July issue of the AMICA Bulletin on page 134 for you
AMICA members.

The piano is a 4' 2" Marshall & Wendell that I believe would have
been referred to as a Style 5GE.  It has a mahogany finish and is
serial number 111788 (manufactured in 1931).  Another member of MMD
owns M&W ser. no. 111310 and it is the same style piano but has "B"
style valve units with a complete "A" expression system.  Mine has
a complete "B" expression system including the subduing mechanism in
the first intensity adjuster.  It also uses the "B" style valve with
the ball bleed for all playing notes.

There are things it does not have that we associate with a "B", and
that would be the electric roll drive and jumbo spool.  This piano
has a 6-point wind motor with governor.  It does have a "B" tracker
bar with the staggered holes but uses tracking wires instead of the
tracker ears through the bar.  My guess is that they saw no reason
to go to the added expense to engineer and build these features into
such a limited production piano when they could use off the shelf "A"
upright components.  Other things it does not have are lost motion
pneumatics or a date stamp on the pump.

The loud pedal and soft pedal are standard "A" upright units and use
2 "A" style valves each, one with a bleed and one without.  Both units
have a felt cover over the valve units to keep them clean in addition
to the perforated felt covers tacked to the blocks.  The rest of the
lower part of the piano contains the "B" expression components.  The
only other "A" style component is the wind motor governor that was
mentioned earlier.

The person I bought the piano from in 2002 had acquired it in the
Rochester, New York, area where Marshall & Wendell pianos where built.
There are no records of the upright in any of the American Piano
Company records that have survived.

It has been suggested that it might be an editing piano that would have
been built to be used at the factory rather than something built to be
sold.  The existence of editing pianos is mentioned in the book "The
Ampico Reproducing Piano" edited by Dick Howe.  We will probably never
know for sure why it was built.  The bottom line is that "It is what
it is" and I'm glad it survived!

Bob Stewart