I just restored a 1926 Jesse French & Sons piano with a Simplex player
action.  It appeared that either this piano had never been restored
before or whoever may have previously restored this piano was a top
quality technician.  Everything appeared original.  The piano case is
a beautiful brown walnut.

There is one mystery that I found.  In all I have read about Simplex
player actions, the tracker bar holes are always shown as "half-round
holes" making up what is referred to as the Simplex "trapezoid" tracker
bar.  The tracker bar on this piano has all rectangular shaped holes.
The tracker bar appears to be original as it has the necessary cut-outs
for the roll tracking mechanism and is also connected to the transposing
controls.  The pneumatic stack is the Simplex three-tier stack.

Does anyone have any information about Simplex player actions that
didn't use the "trapezoid tracker bar?"

Thanks,
Joel Holden
Dataw Island, South Carolina