One of the questions Robert Perry asked was:

> 2. Was there ever a recording piano (i.e., a player that was used
> to record rolls) that could be mistaken for a normal player piano
> without close inspection?

Except that they were in a recording studio, this was surely true
of all the recording pianos used by the big companies, to judge from
photographs.  The recording artist had come to give a recital and
that's how it should be.

The only recording piano I've ever seen in action certainly met this
requirement.  This was a Steinway Model B pedal-electric Duo-Art grand
in the middle of the Autoplayer shop in Slough, England, in the middle
1970s.  It was even used to demonstrate (and come to that, edit new)
Duo-Art rolls.  Only a discreet multi-core cable betrayed its additional
role.

Speed-registering electrical contacts had been added to the piano
action and pedals.  Jazz recitals were held by celebrities at weekends
and the proceeds issued on roll maybe 2 to 6 weeks later, depending on
how well the computer was working and how many jaded old uprights were
in for repair.

The Duo-Art rolls produced by Autoplayer always seemed to me somewhat
tame, but I am sure this was thanks to constraints on editing time
rather than any default in the piano, which even then played Duo-Art
rolls well.

On the closure of the shop following the death of its proprietor Paul
Young in a road accident, the piano was bought by Peter Davis of the
London Player-Piano Group and completely rebuilt, the contacts being
removed.  It remains his star instrument and the rebuild was such that
it is now certainly the easiest pedal-electric grand I've met on which
to pedal ordinary rolls.

Dan Wilson, London