•I have a never-restored Red Welte Vorsetzer in very excellent condition, but the cloth on all the pneumatics has dried out and must be replaced. A job that is even bigger than re-covering the pneumatics is the work on the valve system. All these valves and pouches have been sealed in the mechanism ...

•Hello there: Does anyone have or know of a schematic diagram for the note valves in an early Red Welte Vorsetzer? They use an amazingly different style of valves from any other player I've seen, and while I could reverse-engineer them, it would be a lot easier if someone had a good picture. Thanks ...

•I am working on my 88-note push-up Pianola, and I want to change the old felt pads at the tips of the fingers. I am looking to buy a 3/8" thick sheet of felt at about the density of piano hammers, so that I can punch or cut out circles of about 1" diameter. When I cut the circle in half, I will hav...

•I want to thank all the people who wrote in about my request for 3/8" hard felt to be used on the tips of my Pianola fingers. I actually solved the problem after I wrote in, but before the answers appeared. It is such a strange story that it is worth telling. I began by searching the Schaff Piano S...

•I cannot imagine how Ray Bauer (080202 MMDigest) got the idea that an Ampico will play note #1, which is A. The three big reproducer pianos all cut off notes at both ends of the scale. The Green Welte plays all 88 notes, however. I will agree that by cutting out note #4 (which is C), the Duo-Art hu...

•In response to the question about the effect of the length of tracker bar tubing, here is my understanding of it. Obviously, the valve must have a bleed in order to exhaust air under the pouch; it also has to exhaust the air in the tube leading to the tracker bar. With a small bleed, repetition can...

•My friend Rick Smith at The Piano Exchange in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, is looking for a player stack for an old Strich & Zeidler upright. John Tuttle says that this company used the Autopiano mechanism, but Rick is just looking for something that fits. I might point out that the scale of t...

•Hi Mike: I have had a quantity of PVC-E glue for over 20 years, and it still works as good as new. I got it from National Casein Products, http://www.nationalcasein.com/ While I certainly cannot guarantee that your glue is still good, it is easy to test: glue some scraps of different materials toge...

•Yes, rubber or neoprene tubing will work fine but, unlike lead, the rubber tubes do not stay bent. The best way I've seen to keep the tubing in place is to use a modern hot-melt plastic glue gun to apply little blobs in the places where the tubing won't naturally stay. Randolph Herr

•To John Farmer: You can almost certainly get your piano into your home. You must disassemble the piano to the point where the key bed can be unscrewed from the sides. It is not that complicated, but if you are worried about putting it back together, then consult with an expert. I believe that any A...

•I think that I can help John Tuttle with the mystery pallets on the Half Duo-Art that he mentioned in yesterday's MMD. Aeolian would always make their foot-pumped systems so that if you were to raise the Accompaniment level to the highest point, it would auto- matically turn on the Theme, but only ...

•To answer Jeffrey Borinsky's question about Shaw having a Pianola, the answer is "Yes." Before Shaw became famous as a playwright he was a well-known music critic, and I believe that some of his reviews have been collected in a book which may still be available. The reason I know he had a Pianola i...

•I recently bought unseen a 1910 Weber Pianola Grand. This was the first year a grand Pianola was made by Aeolian, and a picture of it can be found in the front of Alfred Dolge's monumental work "Pianos And Their Makers", which was published in 1911. When the movers delivered it, I was quite surpris...

•Here is a follow up on the Weber foot-pumped grand with the cast iron keybed, that appeared in 080617 MMDigest. The person I bought it from got back to me a few months after I bought the piano. She said her mother told her that the person who was selling the piano at the time contacted them, and to...

•Just an idea -- has anyone contacted the Smithsonian or the Library of Congress to see what they recommend? They deal with similar problems all of the time in their restoration efforts. They were very helpful several years ago when I had problems with some old reel-to-reel magnetic tapes that I wan...

•I can help Tony Pignaloni with the request for rubber blocks for Ampico motors. Nowadays, there are countless dozens of rubber-like compounds that can be used to mold new blocks. I live in New York City and I go to "The Compleat Sculptor" in lower Manhattan. Their web site is http://www.sculpt.com/...

•Here is a possible answer to Jere DeBacker's question about the simplified Repeat switch on late Duo-Arts [081004 MMDigest]. I was hoping someone would answer this authoritatively, but since there were no responses, here is my guess. The two-tube switch either allows the two tubes to be connected o...

•I want to mention that I did some investigating about the Automatic Gain Control (AGC) on modern video cameras about a year ago. I found that the Canon HV20 had both a jack for an external microphone as well as the ability to turn off the AGC. You then adjust the recording level with a meter that a...

•Jazz fans know that Lemuel Fowler was a young black man who appeared suddenly in the 1920's, made many piano rolls as well as 78 RPM phonograph records, and then seemed to vanish just as suddenly. He still has a large following as he was an incredibly talented composer and pianist. I recently visit...

•Here is the email I sent Peter Phillips in Australia after I read his request for a Rybner photo. In my email, I mention the giant Ampico poster; do any readers of MMD have any information about this poster? The next email will have Peter's answer to me. Randolph Herr - - - Dear Peter: I want to te...