An Aeolian Cabaret player (1973) which I serviced last week had the problems which Larry just described; paper fluff and bleed cleaning. For some reason, those plastic valved bleeds tend to get clogged easily. Another possible problem can sometimes be loose (leaking) gasket joints or excess air leakage through cracked wood (some of the wood they used wasn't so great). Since good valve operation also depends on pneumatically tight air channels (to maintain the proper pressure [or partial vacuum] differentials), it is good to tighten any loose gasket screws, apply a small bead of PVC-E (or SOBO) glue around the edge of any suspect gaskets, and to seal (thick shellac or lacquer) any large leaking cracks in the wooden channels. In the event that the plastic-housed unit valve is bad, replacements might still be available from Schaff. Craig Bougher's book on Orchestrion building has some good chapters (available from Player Piano Co., Wichita, and Schaff) on how to easily test valves for proper bleed rate versus tracker bar hole size. According to Craig's criterion, most of the old players are fairly close to theory, but a l970's Sting and Cabaret I tested didn't come close to proper bleed ratio; therefore, how can we expect their valves to operate properly? Is this why most of the newer pneumatic players strike with only a small portion of the power that the older 1920's players could muster? I suspect additional shortcomings also. Hope some of this helps. Fred Scoles, RPT Oswego, NY
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