In 40 years of rebuilding players, my experience tells me that
most rebuilders do serious damage to their players trying to part
hot glue joints, and rarely manage to achieve airtight stack
pneumatic joints with it.  I don't want to be a party to such
damage and failure again in future.

Anyone who has had to rebuild a Gulbransen or Welte stack will
know all too well they were never intended to come apart again.

I have never experienced any PVA creep, have never had any problem
removing PVA from substrates just like hot glue, and to all intents
and purposes in player work PVA and RTV are completely airtight.
Instruments I rebuilt using them are still performing perfectly 40
years on.

Player pianos and their music are an interesting part of musical
history, but after all they were only overpriced items of conspicuous
consumption for the nouveau riche.  If they are to be appreciated in
any meaningful way they must perform correctly.

I can honestly say that though I have been invited to hear many over
the years, I have never heard, especially in the US, a player rebuilt
by one of the supposed experts that performed properly, yet they seem
utterly unable to hear this!  There seems to be a fetish about the
value, appearance and prestige of instruments, on doing things "right",
yet failing completely to grasp that the only point of a reproducer is
to reproduce.

Since I have never had any problems reversing PVA and RTV, and
acknowledged success in making players work correctly, I'll go on using
and recommending them.

Patrick Handscombe
Wivenhoe, Essex, UK