•Hello Martin, In the early 1980's my Universal began losing one note after another as the Perflex pouches became weak and failed. I found this to be a very simple stack to work on. The pouches are simply short PVC rings with pouch material glued to one end. I chose to replace the Perflex with tan p...

•Does the player have the same plastic individual valves I just encountered on my Organ-Matic player? If so, they might have been made with Perflex, that disastrous experiment of the 1970s, and will need to be cut open and recovered. Do-able but tedious! Ken Rosen

•As to the matter of other technicians' work: save the cussing for the hallowed walls of your own shop. I know how tough this can be since I am in my thirties and have removed miles of slimy surgical tubing and scraped off Troy tons of Perflex. Remember, many fine technicians were fooled by and lure...

•John Omiatek at QRS (tel.: 1-814-676-6683) is the guy to talk to about these Universal player systems. Universal players and nickelodeons do unfortunately have pouches with a "Perflex-like" material. I recall ten years ago, in one of these modern nickelodeons, having to replace disintegrated Perfle...

•I have repaired three of these machines over the years. The main problem I found in all three machines is "Perflex pouches" in everything! The stack, the play/rewind/cointrip valves, all of the percussions and bells have Perflex pouches. The only way to repair these machines is to replace all of th...

•I recently brought a 25-year-old Universal player piano into my shop for repairs. It was playing weak and missing many notes. John Omiatek over at QRS warned me I might encounter bad Perflex pouches. To my surprise when I opened the valve assembly and inspected things it wasn't the pouches. In fact...

•I have a Western Electric orchestrion in my shop. My customer rebuilt it himself about 40 years ago. He used Perflex pouches with white glue; of course, the pouches disintegrated. I am removing the white glue and am going to re-pouch the stack. Does anyone know what the original pouch material was?...

A rather depressing outlook for roll collectors it seems, if I am interpreting the article correctly. So, if no one has a perforator of any worth and the subjective tests in the '70's (the "70's???!!!) performed on instruments restored to the dubious restoration standards of the time, both in regard...

R >From: PIANOLA@aol.com R >Regarding your AMPICO problems... If you are having "cancel" problems,¶ R >AND INDEED you do HAVE the "A" style Automatic Cut-out with the finger¶ R >pneumatic, then we shall proceed from here.......... In this case, no. The piano contains a 'B' stack, with a single set o...

> From: BTHORNTON@delphi.com > Subject: Re: Schultz player pianos > > When ever I get one of the older style stacks, > I fabricate a whole new stack using the most of the old hardware. Brian, Way back in days of olde, I rebuilt a Schultz with the double pneumatic stack. Unfortunately, a wonderful ne...

Hello from the unusually warm Pacific Northwest: You will recall the recent discussion over using one or two crescendos in an Ampico A/B system. A follow-up question: with only one crescendo, how does one balance bass and treble expression pressures? (vacuums?): I rebuilt the "sort-of-A" expressions...

Hello List, Recently, Pat Mularky mentioned a bad experience with some old Bilon material. This was followed by Craig Brougher with a general skepticism of synthetic materials (which I share) but which would up actually paying Bilon a effective compliment for its apparent longevity. Having been burn...

Hi, You asked: > I'm curious if they are sealed leather puches- would you know if they > are and what type of sealant was used? Sometime ago, the possibility > of egg white diluted with water or "something else" was brought up in > this group. Any new input? The pouches in the Wurlitzer "type" block...

Robbie Rhodes asked about a sealant for lead tubing: > Is there a non-crystalline sealant, such as rubber cement, > which is suitable (and proven)? The "proven" part is admittedly subjective, but I've had good results with #320 plastic cement (or whatever they call it now) from PPCo [Player Piano Co...

•A lot has been written through the years about various materials used in rebuilding the pneumatic units of player pianos. As new materials appeared on the market they were tried and the results reported in the bulletins and publications of enthusiasts' groups. I have been reading some of those old ...

•Bob Loesch wrote, "You cannot use hot glue with Polylon, but must use a glue sold by PPCo, and called by them 'Plastic Glue'. You can use hot glue with Polylon if you glue with nylon out. But keep reading. Polylon was originally made for raincoats and unfortunately it got snagged by the player pian...

•Hello, After over 16 months as a quiet lurker on MMD, the discussion of various roll reading approaches in recent days finally got me to write. I am an AT&T retiree, electronics type, having played about 31 years with device testing, and then 6 years of network management. I say played because elec...

•I would like to response briefly to Lee Roan's message on restoration materials and "purists." Regarding new construction, I agree that anyone ought to be free to do whatever he or she wishes. The marketplace will be the final judge of the results. The following comments apply only to the restorati...

•Two months ago I was called out to look at a B.A.B. band organ in Kentucky that been restored about eight years ago. The valves had been replaced with the PPCo unit blocks. When the organ was playing awhile, more and more notes began to stay on until it sounded as if the tracker bar was uncovered. ...

•John Tuttle and I had the same thoughts [000705]. I also called Player Piano Co. and talked with Durrell Armstrong this morning. A day late with the news, but I was thinking. Many restorers used the Perflex and sponge neoprene when the products first came into use. At the time these products were n...