With its fancy overhanging top, large carved scrolls under each end of the keyboard, and hanging lamps, the late style Arcadian is taller than its predecessor, the left corner of which is shown here immediately to the right. The taller cabinet provides room for the bass drum to stand up instead of laying horizontally as in the earlier style. The piano barely visible to the left is a rare Seeburg L Orchestra.
This is how the project began.
Jennifer Parks, RPT, installing new hammers after installing new damper felts and regulating the dampers. Jennifer brought her fine piano restoration skills to our shop from 1990 through 1994. Her business, Parks Piano Practitioners, is now in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Most components installed under the keyboard. The large horizontal pneumatic to the left of the motor is for the sustaining pedal. The valve boxes above the motor are for expression and other controls. The expression regulator is directly above the large 3-lung pump. A friction wheel, barely visible, runs against the pump pulley to drive the music roll.
Each rank of pipes has its own pipe chest. The snare drum has three single stroke beaters. Perforations for a snare drum roll are visible near the left edge of the wide music roll, beneath the tracker bar. The roll plays from bottom to top, and rewinds very slowly. The larger bass drum pneumatic plays bass drum parts, and the smaller one reiterates to simulate a tympani. A triangle and two pairs of castanets are hidden behind the flute pipes.
Interior of the completed Arcadian.
