Unlike my father, I'm no mechanic.  Dad had our piano for 18 years before he
died and I've had it for the 17 years since.  In a nice hand-signed letter,
Mr. Steinway told my mother that the instrument was manufactured in the
family plant in 1911 and shipped to Aeolian to have the player mechanism
installed in 1913. It's the Pianola/Themodist, mechanism with the dual
(65/88) tracker bar.  I love that piano, but unlike Dad have never much
gotten "into" its insides.  My trusted technician is getting older, and I
guess when he's no longer available I'll either have to actually learn
something or find somebody.

But even my "piano man" has been unable to solve a problem for me.
Particularly on some rolls--especially toward the end of large ones--this
infernal, intermittent squeaking starts up, threatening to drown out slow
lyrical passages all together.  Dad would know how to describe the geography
of the player mechanism better than I.  And it's hard for me to tell exactly
where the obbligato originates.  But it seems to come from somewhere just to
the right of the source roll itself.

I do know how to open the piano up, and I know there's a bunch of impressive
machinery over there with bicycle chains and the like.  But as far as I can
tell, the "tech" has those all well lubricated.  Is there some likely culprit
crying out for a drop of oil or a dab of grease?

Your for undisturbed listening pleasure,

Paul Murphy