How is the Ampico A Scale structured?

The American Piano Company's Ampico Reproduction System was - like the Aeolian Duo-Art - very successful, especially in the home market USA and UK and is still rarely found in Europe - although in the late phase European pianoforte manufacturers such as Hopkinson, Grotrian-Steinweg and Bösendorfer also used this system.

The arrangement of the music slide block and the control elements as a drawer below the keyboard is striking. In this way the grand pianos were not artificially lengthened by the reproduction mechanism, as happened with Hupfeld, Welte and Duo-Art, because here the upper mechanism still had to find space between the soundpost and the keyboard. A 1.85m Grotrian-Steinweg grand piano with Ampico system is therefore a real 1.85m grand piano - whereas a 1.80m Niendorf-Welten grand piano, for example, only contains a 1.50m grand.

Here is an excerpt from the Ampico A test roll, played on a Grotrian-Steinweg Ampico grand piano

 

 

From 1913 there was the predecessor (Stoddard-Ampico) - from 1920 the mature Ampico A. The further development - the Ampico B - was on the market from 1929. Compared to other reproduction systems, the Ampico system is interesting mainly because of its special repertoire. The American Piano Company (formed by the merger of leading manufacturers/brands (Knabe, Chickering, Fischer, Haines, Marshall&Wendell and later Mason & Hamlin) succeeded in signing S. Rachmaninoff, who was very sceptical about reproduction instruments, exclusively for the Ampico system. This generated a lot of attention and attracted buyers for the Ampico - as well as other well-known pianists. In addition to the original roles recorded by S. Rachmaninoff, there is also the repertoire of the so-called Popular Music, i.e. American music from the 1920s-1930s.

The scale of the Ampico A system has 100 holes in the note sliding block including the two gauge levers for gauge control. In the Ampico Inspectors Book 1923 the following assignment is given.

The Ampico A scale has the following assignment (from left to right)

Hole 1: Paper Control left

Hole 2: Slow Crescendo

Hole 3: No 2 Intensity Valve

Hole 4: Loud Pedal

Hole 5: No 4 Intensity Valve

Hole 6: Almost Crescendo

Hole 7: No 6 Intensity Valve

Hole 8: Cancel Valve

Hole 9 to 91: 83 notes B2 to a4

Hole 92: Re-Roll

Hole 93: Cancel Valve

Hole 94: No 6 Intensity Valve

Hole 95: Almost Crescendo

Hole 96: No 4 Intensity Valve

Hole 97: Soft pedal

Hole 98: No 2 Intensity Valve

Hole 99: Slow Crescendo

Hole 100: Paper Control right

Even though Ampico A was replaced by the even better Ampico B in 1929, Ampico A was the main product sold - and is still in great demand today. Certainly one of the most beautiful reproduction systems!

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