Foot Pumping Fiends
By Pete Knobloch
I may not be called the enthusiastic peddler but still put in 2-4 hours every week pumping. Sunday at about 4:00PM you can find me with a glass of wine in my hand pumping out music.
I have a Lester Player piano up in the woods in Christopher Creek (East of Payson Az.) with about 100 rolls that I leave at the cabin. The pump has 2 storage reservoirs which sometimes makes is difficult to control the added expression by pumping with brisk foot strokes. The extra vacuum gets taken up by the reservoirs. It still is lots of fun.
My father found an Aeolian upright Duo-Art in California for $300 dollars about 3 years ago. The person didn't know what he had. It is what I would call a Half Duo-Arts that only have the Accompaniment Accordion side of the regulator. The player had never been touched by anyone for about 60 years and the piano wouldn't even play. The Accordion blocks laid untouched in a pile being held in place by only the hard hoses because the leather being rotted decades ago.
I have rebuilt this player and use it the most. It does need new strings, tuning pins, Refinishing, and some valve work since I didn't open up the stack when I replaced the key pneumatics. What is nice about this player is that the person pumping still has the job of supplying the added expression for the SOLO (Theme) loudness when playing Duo-Art rolls. If you like adding your own expression on standard 88-rolls, you would love pumping one of these players with a Duo-Art roll. You learn to read the Theme holes on the right side of the roll.
I know that moving pianos is hard on them but I love taking it out to the desert on new years eve, or to a party in the park or house and introduce people to a reproducing piano. I have pumped this piano for 6 hours straight and have said to my self, I need to do some work on these valves. It must not bother me to much since the value leathers haven't been touched yet.
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(Message sent Mon 9 Sep 1996, 16:19:40 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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