I recently acquired a 1934 Marshall & Wendell Ampico B grand piano.
I was really excited to get it because it had been totally rebuilt,
probably around 1971, by one of the better rebuilders. The piano
re-pinned, re-hammered, re-strung and refinished. It has a full Model
B drawer and the rest of the player is a mixture of A and B parts.

When I tested it, none of the notes would play. The stack appeared
to be rebuilt with nylon covered pneumatics and shiny shellac on the
valves. I removed a valve and the first thing I noticed was the valve
facing was neoprene sponge. Blowing into the signal elbow produced
no resistance.

My worst fears were confirmed when I split it open to reveal a Perflex
pouch. So even though this was rebuilt by an experienced technician,
even he fell prey to the new "wonder" materials being touted at the
time. It would be a few years before we all realized the errors of our
ways.

Anyway, when I split a couple of the valves open, they resisted and
splintered badly. Also the pouch was glued in with plastic glue, as
you would expect, and some of the glue had gotten into the ball bleed
valve. I've come to the conclusion that you only get one chance to
rebuild unit valves. Be the first to split open an original, hot
glued valve.

So, after all that back story, I'm hoping someone has a set of Model B
valves for sale, either untouched originals, or professionally rebuilt
ones ready to go. The other option would be to find someone braver
than me to attempt to redo these. Thanks for your help.

Bob Stout
Independence, Missouri
(Newly elected president of the Heart of America chapter of AMICA.)