Don Teach was wondering about the costs of the model B Ampico. It is true
that Ampico saved some money in the overall design by doing away with the
primaries (primarily), but the electric roll drive was many times more
expensive than pneumatic drives, and the development costs of the new
piano would require several years to amortize, I suspect.

Every month spent on a new problem, like ball bleeds, cost the company
the same in operating expenses that those same people would have cost it
had they been engaged in directly profitable ongoing manufacturing
concerns instead.  You don't get something for nothing, so I would
confidently say that Ampico never earned back their initial investment in
high priced labor and fancy equipment required to build, test, and
produce the new Ampico.

Intrinsically, I think the new Ampico would have cost about the same as
the model A, because of the more expensive individual components, and the
more expensive way it was assembled -- gaskets and spring studs and
clamps, etc.  Each valve had all the parts of the old ones, plus an extra
ball bleed and an extra filter section added below it.  Then you have
extra testing expenses for a super sensitive valve like that, which was
not required with primaries.

Manufacturing expenses are difficult to estimate simply by looking at the
improvement in a mechanism.  The simplest device can sometimes be so
expensive to produce that it's better to go back to a more complicated
design, simply for the sake of looser manufacturing tolerances,
or easier logistics.

Craig Brougher