In reply to Bob Stewart's posting in 030130 MMDigest, I can relate
a very recent observation.  I restored a player (H. C. Bay) in 1995,
and was recently called because it would not play well.  I found that
mice had done a job in and around all of the valves on the top layer.

After repairing this damage, I was looking at the pneumatics, and found
that on most every pneumatic which was in the normal playing range, the
cloth had failed.  If you took the cloth off and held it up to a light,
you could see a perfect "H" pattern , with the light also extending up
the sides for about an inch.

These pneumatics had a felt bumper in place, so I know the cloth had
never received a hard crease.  The cloth was either from Player Piano
Co.  or American Piano Co.  A lot of make good work for a 7-year-old
restoration.  Also the red motor cloth on the wind motor was as hard
as a piece of cardboard.

I sure hope the new cloth available now corrects some of these
problems.  You can get the best, but if manufacturing techniques
change, who knows the results, at least not for a few years.

Al Pebworth
Chesapeake, Virginia
http://www.pebworths.com/