Hi Gerry and fellow MMDer's

H.C. Bay is very well known in the player piano world. Although
the company was in business for a short number of years (1914-1929),
the factory at Bluffton, Indiana produced the Bay, Drachman,
Meldorf, Vollmer and Bellman, Solo-Concerto. (this according to
the Pierce Piano Atlas, 9th Edition)

In the Player Piano Co. catalog, the H.C. Bay player action is
listed as #4 and this technician has worked on lots of H.C. Bay-
type actions. H.C. Bay actions were nothing to write home about.
They were relatively cheaply made and used in relatively inexpensive
pianos.

The true ear-mark of the H.C. Bay action is the valve. Made of a
black-molded material, similar in composition to the old piano
roll spool ends, there is "no other player action (that) used a
valve exactly like this, (and) this is all that is needed for
identification.*" H.C. Bay also used the 'fish-pole' type tracking
mechanism, if they used one at all.

*Excerpts from the Player Piano Co. catalog,pg. 130, copyright 1983

Musically,

John A. Tuttle (john@player-care.com)
Web Domain at: www.player-care.com
Brick, NJ 08724 (732) 840-8787
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