Dear Friends,

Replying to the Ampico "B" problems:

Getting the Ampico "B" to respond properly to all formats of
AMPICO rolls is a daunting task, indeed. But if sufficient care
is used in rebuilding the "B eeast" I'm sure that it will be worth
the while.

While replacing the pouches in the valves, and cleaning the ball
bleeds may help cure your ills, here are a couple more suggestions
which may help restore the "B".

Rebush the fingers through which the poppet wires travel. The wires
must be free of any type of corrosion. It has been suggested to
replate all of the wires to guarantee that there is a minimal amount
of friction at this point.

Open the striker pneumatics to the recommended distances. It has
been noticed that often times when a piano was placed in a home, it
sounded "too loud". The solution was to close the striker pneumatics
some. It did the trick. Of course, soft passages didn't always come
as good, but that brings around the third point. When the piano was
new, the regulation on the piano was close to perfect. With very, very
close tolerances on let off and drop off, the piano would be able
to negotiate even the most difficult roll, including "Islamey", played
by Julius Chaloff, which incidentally is an "A" roll.

As an interesting sideline, the American Piano Company did offer to
its customers a service contract whereby they would visit a customer's
home three or four times a year to make certain that their piano
was performing at perfection. The service personnel would take care
of anything that was out of order: valves sticking, action regulation,
tuning, noisy pump, etc. at a low annual fee. I don't know how many
years this service contract was offered, but it was available. If any
one wants more info on it I'll be glad to dig up what I can.

For anyone who want to have their "B" piano working at peak performance
should get the note compensation roll which is available through
Keystone Music Rolls. The roll number is AMPICO 70601.

Mike Walter¶
bf105@freenet.buffalo.edu