Having done quite a few Ampico B rebuild jobs over the last 20 years or
so, I have now encountered something of a mystery.  All the instruments
that I worked on had the well-known wind chest spill valves, on the
bass and treble stack halves, without any bleeds fitted.  This seemed
normal as their action would be "gently" activated with a slight slope
in the cutting off time.

Now I'm about to finish a 1931 Chickering on which a restauration was
done in the early 'seventies.  This particular instrument has bleeds
in the spill valves that make its action fast, almost shockwise and
(too?) abrupt.

Was this an "invention" of the former repair shop, or have any of you
seen this before?  Any comment on this matter will be greatly
appreciated!

Robert J. Buskop
Rotterdam, the Netherlands
foxhole@telfort.nl.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ The diagram, Fig. 15, on page 30 of "Ampico Service Manual 1929",
 [ shows that the control signals are obtained from the hoses that
 [ evacuate the No. 6 intensity valve pouches.  Tees are installed
 [ at the bass and treble pouches and suction is applied to the
 [ pouches of the wind-chest spill units via #60 constrictions
 [ in the tees.  The text on page 36 says that the #60 bleeds limit
 [ the amount of air "robbed" from the No. 6 intensity valves.  The
 [ pouch of the spill unit pictured on page 36 has no internal bleed.
 [ -- Robbie