On Wed, 19 Nov 1997 THEOFONE@aol.com wrote: > (Speaking of TPT) I did an HC Bey once that took a quart... Actually, H.C. Bay. As long as there are player technicians around who remember the heyday of the player piano and the proliferation of really crappy pianos outfitted with cheaply-made, bottom-of-the-barrel player actions, the name HC Bay will live on. Although in business less than two decades, they nevertheless built a piano which managed to leave an indel- ible impression on any tech who ever encountered one. They were blessedly killed off by the crash in '29. While the serial numbers indicate that they built less than 25,000 pianos during their lifetime, the fact is that they out-sourced their player action to so many other manufacturers of "el cheapo" pianos, that it eventually came to be the fourth most popu- lar player action ever built, coming in right after Standard, Simplex and Amphion. If you ever encounter an HC Bay, you'll rapidly find yourself thinking "Why am I wasting time on this piece of junk, when I could be working on something really worthwhile, like one of those beautiful, old square grands!" I'm surprised that the pinblock required "only" a quart of tuning-pin-tightner--maybe quality-control accidentally let a good one (relatively-speaking) slip through. :) Old HC Bay-- gone, but not forgotten! Les Smith lessmith@buffnet.net
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