Restoration of a Fischer Ampico for the Hicks family
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85) 
86) 
87) 
85) The drawer is ready to receive the new tubing.
86) The new tubing is in place. All that remains is to run the few lines that
come from the controls inside the drawer and the cover can be put in place. If
necessary, some felt "staples" will be made to pin the tubing into place
strategically to allow the bottom cover to sit properly.
87) The components inside the drawer before restoration.
88) 
89) 
90) 
88) The power shut off cut out block after restoration,
ready to be closed back up.
89) The power shut off valve and pneumatic before restoration. The valve is
similar to the secondary valves of the pneumatic stack except that this valve has a
smaller valve body and outside valve seat. This valve is also covered in burnt
shellac that has been colored to a gloss black. The fresh burnt shellac will be
gloss black to match this after it is finished.
90) The wind motor before restoration.
91) 
92) 
93) 
91) The wind motor has been restored and is now being
reassembled. There must have been some moisture that got to the motor at some time.
The wire valve guides had rusted solid into the trunks making it very difficult to
pull them. Also, some of the joints that make up the valve frames had failed and
needed to be reglued before the valves were cleaned and lapped.
92) The completed wind motor. This motor had never received internal sealant
to make it totally air tight at the factory. While it was apart, I took the pains to
make sure that all the wind ways inside the motor were well sealed.
93) The completed power shut off pneumatic and valve and the cut out pouch restored
and screwed back onto their mounting board.
94) 
95) 
96) 
94) The contents of the right side of the drawer before
restoration. These include the wind motor governor, tracker pneumatic and valves,
player/rewind pneumatic and valves, and another cut out pouch.
95) The bypass valve inside the wind motor is activated by a square pouch. The
block on which this pouch is formed disintegrated (right) so a new block had to be made
(left.)
96) The play/rewind valve block restored and ready to be put back together.
97) 
98) 
99) 
97) The play/rewind pneumatic being recovered. This
and the tracker pneumatic are two of the hardest pneumatics to recover of all player
mechanisms ever made. In this picture, you see how a special spacing bar has been
fitted to the pneumatic to hold the narrow side at the correct span while the first two
sides are glued to the cloth. Some rebuilders cover this pneumatic with two pieces
of cloth to make this covering job easier. However, I feel that this can make the
pneumatic unnecessarily stiff so I do it this way.
98) The finished play/rewind pneumatic.
99) Placing a hinge onto the tracker pneumatic using its metal span brackets
temporarily reinstalled to get the correct orientation so the hinge will be well placed.
100) 
101) 
102)
100) The motor governor has been almost completely finished
and is ready to reassemble. The tempo plate (made of celluloid) was no good so a new
one had to be ordered. The governor will be completed and the right drawer
components reinstalled when that plate arrives.
101) The transmission frame of the Ampico mechanism is made of pot metal and often
warps. The owner had previously taken the frame off and reamed the various bearing
points to free the transmission up. However, there is a place where a brass button
rides back and forth sealing and opening a hole in the pot metal. A nipple signals
the system from this nipple. Upon testing the seal it was discovered that the
warpage had effected the seal of this device. Therefore, the pot metal had to be
ground flat again in order to have this component function properly. You can see the
area that was ground near the bottom center of the picture. It is the area that is
bright white from being freshly ground.
102) All the components of the right side of the drawer have been restored.
The governor has a new brass tempo plate and the new Ampico switches have been installed
on their mounting block. The new switches had to be tested to make sure they were
air tight before installation. This time we were fortunate. Only one of the
switches was leaking. That switch was pulled apart and the mating surfaces reground
to get them totally flat and air tight. Then the brass connecting rods and springs
were transferred from the old switches (the old switches are shown in this picture under
the new ones) onto the new ones.
103) 
104) 
105) 
103) The restored drawer is pictured here with all the
components back in place and the covers still off to show the restored interior
components.
104) A close up of the right side fully restored.
105) A close up of the left side fully restored.
106) 
107) 
108) 
106) The new tubing has been finished off and the bottom
drawer covers installed.
107) The top of the drawer again showing the cover plates back in place. The
drawer had not been refinished when the piano was so I took the time to recoat the drawer
cover plates and the black panels as well along with all the pot metal hardware.
108) The pneumatic stack has now received the last of its internal tubing harnesses.
All that remains is to install the two small harnesses of tubing for the
expressions that run around the stack on each side. This has to be done with the
stack in the piano.
109) 
110) 
111) 
109) The pedals had rotten leather nuts and bushing cloth
that were replaced as can be seen in this picture.
110) The stack and drawer are back in the piano and ready to be tubed up.
111) The completed mechanism is totally tubed up and ready for final tests,
regulation and trouble shooting.
112) 
113) 
114) 
112) The piano is set up now. As you can see in this
picture, this is a one of a kind treasure of a piano. I'd give my eye teeth to have
one just like it!
113) Another picture of this glorious looking instrument. The strings and
plate were redone previously by another technician. This work wasn't done very well
and we are considering doing it over again properly to get the best appearance and to
dramatically improve the final tone quality of the piano.
114) The action is out to give me access to the final pneumatic that needs to be
restored. That is the damper pedal pneumatic. You can see in this picture that
the action still has its original hammers. Replacement of these is being
contemplated by the owner as well. I hope that we can replace them with Isaac
Cadenza hammers. I would greatly enjoy being able to hear this instrument brought up
to a glory even surpassing its beautiful tone and performance when it was new from the
factory.
115) 
116) 
117)
115) The pedal pneumatic before restoration.
116) The damper pedal pneumatic recovered and refelted and ready to go back into the
piano. After I determine exactly how much lost motion I want in this pneumatic to be
determined with the device in the piano and regulated to the action, I'll install the new
pedal web spacer like the one that is visible in picture #115.
117) The owner has agreed with me that the person who was recently hired to restring
this piano did not do an acceptable job. It has been decided to restring the piano
with a new pin block and to rebuild the action. Here, the piano has been masked off
to protect the finish during this process.
