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ENNIS

Another piano to add to your list: Canada (brand name)piano with an Ennis player. I have it in the shop and it's about 3/4 done. I haven't worked on it for a while because it's mine. It's made in Canada (obviously) but I don't know by whom.

The player itself is nothing special. The tracker system is, though. It's a typical double pneumatic that moves the bar, not the roll. There are five holes on each side of the bar, where the edge of the paper goes over. Only one hole on each side is open at any one time and the paper slides over them and balances, like a Standard action.

If you want to transpose, move the indicator and another pair of holes are opened and the original closes. The tracker is now out of balance so the tracker pneumatic moves accordingly. The bar moves the appropriate distance and the roll transposes over a new set of holes. The idea is elegant but slow in opperation because of the stiffness of the tracker bar tubing. BTW, there is a thread on this tracker in MMD.

This piano also has an unusual adjunct to the soft pedal buttons. Imagine a "T" attached between the button and the pneumatic for treble and bass. The tubing attaches to the top of the "T" with the tail open. Now, over the open tail put an arm that is attached to a small, spring loaded pneumatic. The pneumatic is directly tubed to the reservoir. As you pump lightly, the stack plays lighly and, since the T tail is open, the soft pedal pneumatics collapse and push the hammer rail up.

As you increase pedal power, the suction overcomes the spring on the pneumatic. it closes over the T tail and the soft pedal pneumatics relax, the tracker bar moves back and the piano plays with more power. The soft pedal buttons now work also.

This system works as long as everything is working at optimum, but as things begin to leak, the spring that holds the pneumatic open can dominate.

The pneumatic is about the size of a stack pneumatic and the suction to it is from 5/32 tubing. The spring that holds it open is small and is attached to the hinge end with an end hanging over. Tension can be adjusted by a screw through the over hang I hope you get the picture. If you're still curious, I can send you photos.

Jeff Davis

No Technical Information is available at this time.

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