Right away, I've got a mystery to solve, and a player-piano-newbie question to ask. I've uploaded some interior shots of the piano at http://www.classic-keyboard.com/pages/playerp/html to explain my mystery.
If you take a look at these pictures, you'll see that there are two pipes exiting at the left of the main chamber in picture 4. The upper of these two pipes is disconnected at the other end (picture 5). Now, not being prepared to dismantle anything at this point I could only try and push my hand up in that corner and 'feel' for the place that pipe is supposed to be connected - but I can't find anything. The problem is I'm not sure what I should be looking for.
Here's the newbie bit; the set of bellows to the right of the roll mechanism (picture
: do they drive the roll mechanism, or the other way around? And if they drive the roll, is it possible that the disconnected pipe is why the roll doesn't move at this time?Leaving the pipe as is, the pedals have very little resistance. Inserting a bung into the pipe, the pedals get up a reasonable-feeling resistance - but the roll doesn't move. I've checked the obvious things like being in play rather than re-roll etc.
By the way, the 'control panel' (picture 2) includes two unmarked buttons at the far left. I'd like to know what they're for.
I'm assuming this is a 'straight' pianola rather than a reproducing piano and isn't worth a huge amount of money. Of course I'm probably wrong.
The owner (an old lady) said that the piano was purchased from a dealer in the early 1960s along with a huge chest of rolls and played regularly (as a player piano) up to about 15-20 years ago when it fell out of use. It hasn't been moved since and is still played occasionally (manually). The fault as described to me was 'the roll doesn't go round any more'.
How great would it be if the problem was this disconnected pipe and I could stick it back in for her? Obviously the piano is old and unmaintained and would benefit from a (non-economic) rebuild. However, she'd be happy if the thing just worked at all.
Can anyone shed any light?
Thanks,
Justin