1) 2) 3)

1)  This is a photo of the piano with the top board removed to reveal the player mechanism inside.
2)  The owner is considering a black finish on this piano so I have included a swatch of the real veneer from a protected area that retained the bulk of its original beauty for their consideration.  When the loose boards are stripped, I will be adding another photo that shows the veneer even better with no old finish to effect the appearance.
3)  This is like photo #1 except that there is an arrow pointing to a place on the spool box.  This style of player controls the position of the roll using suction holes on the tracker bar which effect a pneumatic behind this board.  The design of this system, however, is somewhat inefficient at keeping the roll correctly positioned.  There are steps that can be taken to improve the way this tracking mechanism operates.  Decisions on what to do with this aspect of the player will be dealt with later after we have crossed more important bridges.

4) 5) 6)

4)  This is the bottom board turned so that you can see the back of it.  There is an arm which slides a door sideways so that the pumping pedals can be folded out and used.  This arm is currently broken but will be made right during the restoration.
5)  The player mechanism's upper components have been removed as has the action.
6)  Now follows a series of photos that show the pump and other components which are placed under the key bed.  Upright manual pump player pianos have a tendency to possess a large number of control arms and wires.  All these need to be cleaned and rebushed and then assembled again so that they operate as originally intended.   It is a good idea to take a number of photos for reference so that reassembly later will be easier.  All parts that come off of the piano are bottled up or taped together and then labeled to make reassembly easier.  They are then all kept in the same place while waiting for their turn at restoration. 

This piano is of the low volume high pressure variety.  That means that it does not move much air through the system to operate but this air needs to be under a fairly high suction level compared to other brands.  This low air volume design can make for a player that is readily expressed and easy to use when expressing the music of the roll manually.  Most people have forgotten that manual player pianos were designed to be very expressive.  Expression pianos (reproducing pianos) are designed to express the music automatically.  Pump style players are meant for the owner to invent their own expression.  The mechanism is to be rebuilt so tightly that the owner can go from ppp to fff from one note to the next as desired.  All these connecting arms help with that expression.  Also, the fact that the air chambers inside the mechanism are so small makes it necessary for the pump to draw air from the upper pneumatic stack from both ends because the air channels inside the pneumatic stack (upper component) are so small that air must be drawn from both sides so that all notes get an equal amount of exposure to suction.

7) 8) 9)

7)  Right hand side of pump.  Showing air lines to the pedal mechanism as well as the wind motor governor, wind motor and pneumatic stack.
8)  Central photo of pump.
9)  Under side of the key bed showing some of its components.

10) 11) 12)

10)  The piano had an very fragile embossed sticker inside that I took a number of photos of.  I washed those photos and present them here.  After the photos were done, I very carefully attempted to remove the sticker so that a copy could be made with the use of the scanner and photo washing software.  The decal was so fragile that a simple gust of air was enough to flake it away.  It could not be saved.  But these photos remain.  This first photo is altered to help you see the details better.
11)  This photo represents the true colors of the decal as they appeared on the piano.
12)  This photo shows better where the decal was located.  (At the bass end near the top.)

13) 14) 15)

13)  This is a painted decoration around the serial number.   This photo will serve as a guide when I refinish the plate.  I will be able to replace this just as it appears.
14)  This is actually the smallest file I have of this plate decal.  I checked and found that my supplier has no replacement for this decal.  It has metallic looking components and other details showing some of the companies sales "gimmicks" including their claim to "bell-like" tone.  My examination of this piano shows that this bell like tone they bragged about was just a way of taking a fault in the tone and turning it into a supposed intentional benefit.  The sound board is far too thick, the bridge is made such that it produces a lot of unwanted overtones and poor sustain.  Yes, the tone would have reminded you of a bell in some ways but not in good ways.  We can make this piano so much better.
15)  A first photo of the indications that the back frame and sides of the piano were coming unglued.  Upon closer inspection, it was found that the glue joints all want to hold near the centers but that the outer half of the area facing the outside air consists of failing or failed glue joints.

16) 17) 18)

16)  Another close shot of glue joints which are opening up.
17)  A shot of the underside of the key bed from a distance.
18)  More photos of the control mechanisms under the key bed.

19) 20) 21)

19)  More photos of the under side of the key bed.  Each block has a bushing in it which will need to be replaced.
20)  Under the keybed there are treble and bass controls which turn the left/right motion into clockwise/counter clockwise motion.
21)  The same at the treble end.  The metal will all have to be cleaned and polished and the bushings replaced.

22) 23) 24)

22)  Underneath the key bed.  The arrow shows a lever which is designed to lock the keys out of the system.  This is useful in that it does stop the keys from operating but results in the player action having more brisk control of the music; you just don't get to see the music happening in the keys.  People don't generally use this because they want to watch the keys move.  However, it is also quite useful (provided you keep the existence of this lever to yourself) in keeping young children from playing the keys of the piano when you want it quiet...
23)  This is one of the most unique bass bridges I have ever seen.   Quite intriguing...  If you look carefully, you will see that the thinner (bichord) notes to the right zig zag in the opposite direction as the fat bass strings to the left.  The transition point is also marked by a noticeable angle in the bridge.   This was done for alignment purposes and also helps to reduce the "twist" that the strings place on the bridge when they are all mounted to the bridge pins the same way as is the usual design.  I have developed a new style of system that mounts the strings to the bridges without adding any twist from bridge pins at all.  This idea for mounting is not new but my method of utilizing it is special.  My system weighs less then other designs and it also is excellent in assisting the elongation of sustain and the even, smooth decay of vibration within the note.  It is not a system which comes free so we may or may not get into that with this piano.  Time will tell as we go along.
24)  A last photo of the under side of the key bed.

25) 26) 27)

25)  The upper side of the keybed.  This is the mounting block which pulls air from the treble side of the pneumatic stack (the gizmo that actually plays the keys) and also draws air from the wind motor which is what turns the roll.
26)  A photo of the same mounting block for the bass end.  This block does not need to be adapted for the wind motor since the treble block sees to that.
27)  A photo of the condition of the original ivory.  Believe it or not, that can be restored.

28) 29) 30)