The electrified pumper, despite the horror of a purist, seems to be an
established fact among most old player pianos that you find.  Today, you
have the vast majority of old rebuilt player pianos still playing with new
covers and tubing, but the original valves.  Without the suction box, you
wouldn't have a chance of playing those pianos anymore.

I know I've said this before, but if each valve leaked only as much as a
#70 bleed (which is a hole drilled by a #70 drill bit-- very tiny) the
entire player would have the same ambient leakage as if you had drilled a
1/4" hole through a reservoir.  By placing an old valve on a tester I have
and hooking it up to a vacuum source and a bubble jar tester, you can see
that old leather is at least 5 times leakier than new leather.  And I'm
not referring to leather that would powder up when scratched, either.  I'm
referring to what appears to be perfect.

We are in the generation which must replace _all_ of that leather, inside
and out, or that player is not ever going to work again -- even with a
suction box.  That also includes the total replacement of original pouch
leather and gaskets of leather.

When I restore a pumper player piano the customer invariably wants a
suction box.  I handle it this way for everybody: I tell them, "Look,
I'll be glad to install a suction box _after_ you have examined the piano
and pumped it when I'm through.  Then, if you _still_ want me to install
a suction box for you, I will, and it won't keep you from pumping rolls.
But that's my policy, take it or leave it."  (This of course if for the
local denizens only).

In thirty or so years of rebuilding players, I don't believe I have
installed more than a dozen suction boxes, and in the last twelve years,
I have installed only three.  To my mind, that means they are satisfied
with the fun they have using the piano just like it came from the factory.
Naturally, I try to talk out-of-state customers out of doing it, too.

The real fun is in the participation.  You actually become a part of a
living, breathing, live instrument who, like yourself, breathes air.
You pump to the cadence.  You try adding expression.  You sing the words.
You learn new tunes.  You find yourself whistling them.  When everybody
else stumbles down the street, you jaunt -- because you have a tune
running through your head that won't come out easily, and it's such a
good one, you really don't mind!

But there is also a very good reason to have the pumper piano electrified,
too.  Both have their advantages, so each way mutually excels the other!
No, you don't get expression.  But yes, there's lots more to it than just
expression.  Today, rock bands don't use expression, nor are pianos on TV
recorded with very much expression content at all!  (Miserable recording
techniques.)  We still get something out of it anyway!  So live music is
a thousand times better and more indelible in you than TV performances or
even the great recordings.  Something about it that sticks to you, when
other media sources are here one minute and gone forever the next! One is
live.  The other isn't.  Expression or no.  Simple as that.

Music is a feast of the mind and heart.  Recorded music when done well is
at least a sampler that we can throw ourselves into, but live music and
only live music is the real McCoy.  You can sit down to *that* table.
All other media forms are attempts, good and bad, to reproduce live music
through speakers.
	
An electrified pump player is just as live a performance as a pumped
player piano is.  The difference is in the degree of participation and
musical involvement, and quality of performance, but it beats speakers
a mile.

Craig Brougher