This project literally came to me from Mr. Brady in boxes and baskets in early 1992. The previous owner had recovered all of the pneumatics and bellows, removed all the lead and cardboard tubing. That is as far as he went, leaving the thing apart in a pile until James Brady purchased it. My first job was to get the case put back together while the piano back was being restored. Next came the task of figuring out where all the player parts went. I was able to look at two other similar instruments, one made in 1921, and the other made in 1928. This one was made in 1924 and the design and placement of the components were much different, but I did figure out that I was missing a few important parts; the Mandolin rail, and the device which restricts the player lifters so the pipes can play solo. I was able to reassemble most of it and proceed with the restoration. The Stack had some serious humidity damage. The glued laminations were separating and the valve plates and stems were badly corroded. I had to carefully cut the valve boards from the pouch boards and duplicate them. The top tier of this three tiered was extremely difficult. This section contained all the register and expression controls. There were many complex air channels and I had to be sure I copied them correctly, even though I did not yet understand the functions.
The Weber Company produced some of the most sophisticated orchestrions in Europe. The roll arrangements are some of the best ever done for any automated musical instrument. They were also secretive about the workings of their instruments. If the workings of Weber look intimidating, they were meant to be. The player mechanism is very much a conventional vacuum operated action with heavily weighted lifters, The primary stack is both pressure and vacuum. This enables the instrument to repeat extremely fast. The roll is also read by pressure requiring a heavy roller over the top of the tracker bar. The tracker bar was completely worn through to where the tubes soldered in. I have only seen this on rare occasions in band organs that have had a large amount of play or have had the same roll in for a long period of time.
By February of 1994 I had all the components restored and in place and ready hook up. I had to remake all the connecting boards for the lead and cardboard tubing. I had to order the 7/8 I.D. cardboard pipe special. (BTW, I had to order 100+ tubes of 4'length so I have a lot left over...if any other rebuilders out there need any.) The roll is pulled though by means of rubber pinch rollers, with friction drive take-up spool, almost like a tape recorder. The rollers had to be redone as well as the friction drive. The roll frame was driven by a pulley and belt system which connected to the large pump drive pulley mounted on the rear exterior of the case. Not something OSHA would approve of these days.
Connecting up the tracker bar was a real challenge. The Unika scale, unlike most tracker bar layouts, is completely scrambled. This was to keep bootleg roll makers such as Eugene DeRoy (Symphonia) from running away with their roll business.....Which I see didn't do much good, as the roll library with this machine has quite a few "Symphonia" rolls. Through infinite patience the tracker bar was neatly tubed up and all the many bugs worked out including making three new Violin pipes. Mr. Brady had the Piano completely overhauled including a whole new sound board. It sounded great! I had been used to American machines which basically belt out a tune. A machine with multiple shades of expression, solo capabilities, and imaginative arrangements was truly refreshing. Immediately after Mr. Brady picked up his Unika, I was struck with a severe feeling of loss like I had never experienced before. The music, the way the Unika played it, was most enchanting. So much work, so much effort, more than mere money can account for. It is the embodiment all all I love about my work.
