At 12:21 AM 2/1/96 PST, Larry Fisher wrote:

> Regarding the fact that it's a Gulbransen player... if you have the
> one with the screwed in pneumatics, you're probably going to be about
> average in cost of rebuilding.  If you have the one where everything is glued
> together,... well, they can be interresting to do.  I'm curious to
> hear what someone else has to say on recovering a Gulbransen with the glued
> together stack.  I've heard about a 55 gallon drum to dip them in,  and then
> there's the cut it with a table saw method, and the replace with custom made
> stack method.  Any others??
>
> Lar
>

I have rebuilt two Gulbransen player pianos with the glued together stack.
In both cases I sawed the stack apart in the manner that Reblitz describes
on page 122 of his book, "Player Piano Servicing and Rebuilding".  Both
pianos are quite airtight and play easily.  I did use a table saw for the
first one, but it is difficult to push a piece so long and heavy through the
saw without a little "jiggle".  It is easier to seal the three pieces back
together if the edges are nice and straight and smooth.  So, on the second
Gulbransen, I used a hand held circular saw with a thin kerf blade.  I
clamped a long straight board to the stack as a guide for the saw.  I found
that to be much easier than using a table saw.

On the Gulbransen, part of the valve chamber is built into the upper leaf of
each striking pneumatic and the opening comes to within a very short
distance of the edge of the leaf.  One must be careful to put enough glue in
that area to make sure that there is no leakage.

It is true that rebuilding a Gulbransen is somewhat more difficult than say
a Standard stack, but considering that the very first player piano I rebuilt
was a Gulbransen and it turned out OK, it surely isn't that much more
difficult.

Howard Wyman¶
hwyman@digital.net