I have been in the player rebuilding business since 1961 and thought
I had seen all the bad restorations I needed to see.  I received a call
from a young woman who inherited her grandmother's player and wanted
it restored because she grew up with and wants to keep it in the
family.  The last so called restoration was done around 25 years ago.

The piano stopped playing around 20 years ago and at that time the
technician said that more work had to be done.  The owner did not want
to put any more money into it so it sat there.  The young lady called
me after checking around and got my name from several sources.  After
she gave me the make of the piano I determined that the player was
a Simplex.

I went to look at the piano and player and found that the cloth on the
bellows and pneumatics was full of holes and the lead tubing was shot,
etc., etc.  At that time I had no idea who did the work because the
grandmother had died and nobody knew who did the work.  I have done
many Simplexes in my time and enjoy working on them because they always
turn out great.

I got the stuff into my shop and I soon discovered after trying to
remove the pneumatic cloth that my old nemesis had returned: SOBO
glue!  He glued all the rubber cloth (bellows and pneumatics) with
SOBO.  That was not the worst of it by no means.  He did replace the
pouches but with Perflex and reglued the pneumatics back together with
SOBO.

I have tried to take the pneumatics apart and have destroyed four or
five so far.  I have a limited supply of untouched Simplex pneumatics
so I need to find a way to take the SOBO ones apart with out destroying
them.

Here is my question:  Does anyone out there have any ideas as to how
I can do this?  Your help will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you so
much.

Charles Schubert
Baldwinsville, New York