Restoration of a Fischer Ampico for the Hicks family
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19) This is the valve that operates the reregulator
pneumatic after it was broken apart but before any new material went on. The
reregulator pneumatic is used to quiet the piano by selecting a switch for subdued play in
the drawer. It operates a valve inside the expression that chokes down the wind
passing through the expression without effecting the way in which the expression device
opens and closes its valve. By this arrangement, subdued playing volume is
accomplished without spoiling the expression.
20) The reregulator valve after it was restored and ready to go back into the
mechanism.
21) The trunk of the expression device. The valve assembly to the left is the
reregulator and the one to the right is for expression.
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22) Recovering the intensity pneumatics. This must be
done with exceeding care since any change in the orientation of the boards or any
unevenness in the recovering will cause the expression device to work improperly or not at
all.
23) The three intensity pneumatics recovered and fully tested to be totally air
tight. New cork gaskets have been installed and the main movable board which they
are attached to has been cleaned and rehinged.
24) The main valve trunk of the expression showing the restored bottom side with the
cancel pouches and wind way showing.
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25) Before replacing the seal cloth that covers the wind
ways and pouches of the expression valve trunk, it is necessary to cover the pouch wells
with circles of newspaper. This prevents any glue squeeze out from dripping onto the
pouches when the seal cloth is glued in place.
26) The top side of the expression valve assembly after dismantling but before
restoration. The pouches as well as the rotten valve leathers must be replaced along
with any gaskets that are needed.
27) The fully restored expression before reassemble.
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28) The reassembled expression device.
29) The bass (unrestored on the left) and the treble (fully restored and tested on
the right) expressions shown side by side.
30) The pouch block which cuts out the signals to the expression system. This
device is activated to that normal unexpressive 88 note rolls can be played on the piano.
Under each expression device is a small pouch block that feeds wind to the
expression valves. This pouch block is activated from the drawer manually to allow
the user to express the music of an 88 note roll him or herself. Sadly, this is not
the best of designs and does not offer very much control when used for manual expression.
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31) The fully restored and reassembled expression cut-out.
The pneumatic attached to it, when activated, closes onto two nipples. The
original design had pneumatic cloth covering a felt backer on the arm attached to this
pneumatic but I like the use of pouch leather here better. This is a very tricky
little pneumatic to recover because of the various features of its shape. The arms
and mounting plate must be worked around as the pneumatic is recovered. Usually
things of this sort are removed before the pneumatic is recovered but in the case of this
one, they cannot be removed.
32) The bottom of the piano shows that many of the devices have been removed.
The tubing had recently been replaced but it is too hard to remove everything and then put
it back together using the existing tubing. It's easier to just cut new tubing when
the restored parts are put back in. Besides, many of the tubing runs had been left
too short.
33) The loud and soft pedal valve block before restoration.
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34) The valves of the loud and soft pedal valve block after
being broken apart. The large black felt squares were installed to keep dirt out of
the valves. Because the new valve leather was a little thicker than the original,
the valve seats were left standing a little higher than original in order to get correct
valve travel. This made it impossible to replace the felt dust covers as they were
originally. Therefore, circles were punched out of them and they were tacked inside
the outer valve seats with a couple dots of glue.
35) One of the control valves after being rebuilt.
36) The control valve of #35 and the loud/soft pedal valve block of #34 after
restoration. This shows them mounted back in the piano.
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37) The amplifier valve disassembled before restoration.
The top left of the picture shows the part which contains tiny flap valves which
keep the suction supply of the two halves of the stack from bleeding into each other.
These flaps must be absolutely air tight and must operate perfectly. They fit
into wells on the other half and must be sized exactly to fit when the block is
reassembled. In addition, the glue which holds them must not bleed too far over or
it will impair their function. Just a dot of glue carefully placed is all that is
needed to hold them. The purpose of this device is to increase the suction inside
the system by closing the pneumatic which is attached to the spill valve on the pump.
By closing this pneumatic the spring tension holding this valve is increase causing
it to require more suction in the system to pull the spill valve off its seat. Thus
increasing the overall suction level.
38) The amplifier valve after restoration but before reassembling. This
clearly shows the new pouch which was carefully and thoroughly sealed. It also shows
the new pouch leather covering on the outside valve seat (top left) and the freshly
recovered valve (middle.) The valve was covered in two different thicknesses of
leather because I didn't have the exact same thickness as was used originally.
Therefore, to obtain correct valve travel two different thicknesses were employed.
The valve now works perfectly and quickly while holding a very air tight seal.
39) This is the equalizer pneumatic before restoration. This device helps to
steady the suction level and is attached directly into the pump through two hoses.
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40) The equalizer after the old pneumatic cloth was removed
and the pedal webbing strap that kept the gap exact without stressing the glue joint on
the cloth was cut.
41) This shows the pump equalizer with the new hinges and gap retention strap in
place. The pneumatic is now ready to be recovered.
42) Before (left) and after (right) pictures of one of the stack equalizer
pneumatics.
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