Hi All,  I wouldn't call myself a plumber, but I've never been afraid
to tackle any plumbing problem in my home.  Some time ago (I'm a little
bit embarrassed to say how long ago) I started having a problem turning
the water 'off' in the bath/shower.  So, I took everything apart and
examined the core (it's a Moen single-core unit).  The washers looked
a little old, so I replaced them.

But the problem got worse.  (I know -- "great plumber!")  Then winter
set in, and getting into the crawl space to turn off the main supply
... well, you get the picture.

Today the temperature got up to 54 degrees so I ran out of excuses and
took another stab at the job.  As it turned out, the problem wasn't the
washers at all.  The real problem was two clogged 'bleeds' on the core
that equalize the water pressure on either side of the two 'O' rings.

So, you might ask, what does this have to do with player pianos?  As
I was cleaning up, it dawned on me that these bleeds perform exactly
the same function as the pouch bleeds in a player.  And, while a note
will come 'on' quite smartly if the bleed is clogged, it will be very
slow to return to the 'off' state -- exactly like what was happening
with the water faucet.

Moral of the story: pump out the trackerbar every so often to keep the
bleeds clean.  It's a heck of a lot easier than tearing down the stack
only to find out there's nothing wrong with the valves.

Musically,
John A Tuttle
Player-Care.com
Brick, New Jersey, USA