When I recently acquired my first player piano (a 1913 Ellington
Manualo) the original piano bench was included.  After several months
of work on the player action, piano action and the case, I finally
turned my attention to the piano bench.

One curious thing I had noticed was the presents of two movable pear
shaped pieces of wood on either side of the bench.  It became oblivious
to me with a little trial and error that these were designed to modify
ones angle of attack by tending to throw ones weight toward the pedals.
Indeed, it is difficult to stay on the bench at this angle _unless_
your feet are firmly placed upon the pedals.

I guess one of the points of this posting is to suggest to anyone who
may not have their original bench to try to elevate the rear of their
bench slightly -- it does make a difference.

James Farris
Atlanta, Georgia