Mike Lott wrote in 201216 MMD:

> ... the notes stopped playing last week even though everything
> else operates normally.

Your photo shows this is an Ampico "A". The pump in an "A" has
a large pouch to shut off the stack during rewind. Sometimes the
seat that his pouch seals against becomes loose and dislodged -- it
could be the problem. Unfortunately, the pouch is on the pump itself,
so you have to bring the pump down and out of the piano to fix it.

First though, check that the stack is getting vacuum, and for that
you really need a vacuum gauge. Hmm, how else to decide what is
going on, without a gauge? (Gauges aren't cheap, although if you
work around players, they are a necessity.)

That the change is sudden makes me believe that something has gone
awry, not that the cloth has aged out. Okay, is there anyone else
with some good ideas? While I have been around these, I'm not the
"resident expert."

By the way, I am having "fun" working on my "new" "B", but so far just
working on the piano end; it has been sadly neglected for decades.

Oh! And Mike, Oroville (California) is the home of the Historic Home
museum of C. F. 'Judge' Lott, which is an unusual last name; wondering
if any relation? Charles Lott married Susan Heyes, and they settled
here in 1850. He was in the second legislature of California and
involved in a lot of other historical firsts for the area.

David Dewey