Regarding the valves in a Melville Clark piano, I feel that they
were a fine design and they'll work beautifully if rebuilt properly
with good high quality original type material, including leather,
felt and rubber cloth (which is right under the leather).

I have a 1909 Melville Clark that is still entirely original except for
the tubing.  It still plays fine.  A piano that is over 100 years old
and still plays at all on it's original leather covered pneumatics and
it's original valves and it's original bellows cloth, isn't a terrible
design.  They were extremely high quality in design, construction and
workmanship.  They are a living piece of mechanical art in my opinion.

As for the clutch in the winding mechanism, these are beautiful nickel
plated little works of art.  They are easy to take apart, clean, polish
and re-grease.  Of course they have springs in them, because they are a
little slip clutch mechanism.  Take them apart carefully and there's no
problem.  I have photos of these mechanisms, before, completely apart,
and after.

Thanks,
Jere DeBacker
Denver, Colorado

 [ Don't forget, Mr. Clark was constantly changing the design of his
 [ products.  One rarely sees Melville Clark player pianos that are
 [ identical in all respects, therefore it's risky to declare that all
 [ the elements of Melville Clark player pianos are well-designed.
 [ -- Robbie