Player Query

[Stephen Powell]

Ron Nossaman wrote:

>You didn't say if this was a recent unit that had been, perhaps, eaten by
>unspecified rodentia, or an old 20's era player that is on it's way to
>Valhalla via honest entropy. Going with the prevailing odds, I'll assume
>the latter.


Sorry Ron, perhaps I should have been a little more specific.  You assumed
correctly: the piano is a 1924 Campbell with a Standard pneumatic action.
One of the best things about this piano is that it is virually untouched; I
get to see far too many aquarium tubing/vinyl seat fabric/PVA jobbies around
here!

The player does work - but not well.  Image: retired couple pumpin' like mad
to make a noise.  They are interested in having the whole thing restored,
but want to spread the pain a little.  I think (hope) that I have made it
quite clear to them that the results won't be what they want until the job
is complete.  Anyway, we've decided to go with rebuilding the lower unit and
the wind motor to begin with.  With the amount of air that's being sucked
through the holes in the motor cloth, it's a wonder this thing plays at all!

>The day and a half to two days that others have mentioned is about right,
>depending on the model, whether things are gasketed or glued, and the
>amount of disassembly disaster recovery that's necessary. If you're
>relatively deft at applying tape stitches, it can go pretty quickly. I'm
>with John Dewey here as far as being cautious in your expectations. The
>problem with non-working (old) players is almost NEVER the pumpers.
>Virtually EVERY player owner that I've talked to has self diagnosed the
>problem to either the "bellows" or the "hoses". True, a well rebuilt set of
>pumpers will sometimes move enough air quickly enough new "hoses" to
>partially overcome the cumulative leaks in the stack and let the player
>make enough semi-organized noise to appear to be working... sort of.
>Problem is, as the old monster movies show us, old dead, dried up mummies
>that are pressed back into service after a number of years of quiet repose
>tend not to hold up well unless they are thoroughly reconstituted
>beforehand. The perishable parts - ALL the perishable parts - have perished
>and don't re-animate all that well. The stack needs rebuilt too, as well as
>the piano (realistically). If you do end up doing just the pumper assembly,
>do it all. Scrape to bare wood at all joints, re-hinge bellows, new flap
>valve leather, new gaskets and slide valve leather, new leather nuts, stack
>cut-out pouch and valve leather, etc. That way, when you have to go back
>later to do the rest of it, you can depend on the quality of the lower
unit.


This is what I'm figuring.

>Here in Kansas, they usually just click their heels together three times
>and make a wish. ( Heavy sigh. )
>
>
>Ron N


Here in Auckland, technicians just pass on my name and then run away; lucky
I like players! :-)

Thanks for your input.

Stephen