I promised myself I wouldn't get involved in this one, but...

I had a Duo-Art grand I was servicing.  I got one of those phone calls
that went, "Oh, my God, they're all coming this evening and my Duo-Art
has been playing very weakly.  Can you do something?"

After checking it through, I noticed it seemed to lose most of its
oomph in the expression box.  It turned out that the rubber coating
in a bunch of the maroon motor-cloth had failed.  Even though it looked
just fine on the outside, I could literally breath through it!

With only an hour or two to go before the party what could I do?  How
could we get by?  I remembered someone years ago who used motor cloth
on the outside -- over the top of -- the pump cloth on his rotary pump
and held it on with SoBo.  Oh, my!

So I followed suit.  Rubber cement and a pouch leather skin recovered
the outsides of the regulators, right on top of the motor cloth.  It
held up long enough that after the holidays I could do it properly.
Maybe this might help shed light on where the problem might be.  I also
did the sustaining pedal pneumatic and the modulator the same way.

I would never recommend this as a long term solution -- never.  In fact,
I have been hesitant to mention this for fear someone out there might
do it of a regular basis, and then join the chorus of short-cutters
complaining about their Duo-Art dropping notes.

In my experience, a good Duo-Art does not drop notes.  Neither were
the folks in the Duo-Art recording department sloppy (under Mr. Milne's
supervision from 1918 on).  Many of us were told this and we believed
it back in the 1950s & '60s, but we have learned a lot since, thanks to
the persistent inquiries of many AMICANs in the intervening years.

Bruce Grimes