Greetings from Oregon,  I am working on a 1950s era Wurlitzer spinet
player piano.  It plays the standard type of player piano roll but
that's where the similarity ends.  It uses solenoids instead of striker
pneumatics, small electric motors to operate the "Play" and "Reroll"
mode, and the tracker bar (very ingenious) has wires from each hole
instead of tubing.

The tracker bar pod is supplied with a very low suction so that when
a hole is opened the suction is just enough to pull a very tiny metal
contact (one behind each tracker bar hole) to complete a circuit, thus
activating the corresponding solenoid.

The piano was not working well when it came to us.  I took it apart,
cleaned it out, put it back together, and now it works like gangbusters!
I'm not sure what I did but it must have been the right thing.  (I love
it when that happens!)

I have two problems remaining, however, that have me stumped: (1) the
automatic reroll doesn't work, (2) the "volume" control has no effect.

Does anyone have any information that might help?

Thanks,
Ken Marts
barnabas1127@gmail.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]