Early Seeburg Soft-Loud Lever and Mechanism

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz)

Early manually-controlled soft-loud lever on a Seeburg B (Haddorff piano #44,649, made in 1911). This lever was used on most early Seeburg A roll pianos, located near the left end of the music shelf. On keyboardless pianos, it was similarly located near the left end of the shelf beneath the art glass panel.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz)

Back view of stack from Seeburg F (Haddorff piano #54,160, made in 1913). The front end of the lever on top of the stack is pointing toward the upper right of this picture. The back end of the lever is connected to a soft-loud slide valve under the top deck board.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz)

Expression regulator mounted on the back of the bass end of the stack in Seeburg F #54,160. The spring is connected to a linkage with a tension rod that passes under the stack, with a leather nut on the front end. Tightening the leather nut increases the soft playing volume.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz)

Close-up of the slide valve mounted directly above the expression regulator in the previous photograph. With the soft-loud lever set on “soft”, vacuum from the pump goes through the regulator, softening the playing of the stack. When the lever is moved to “loud”, the slide valve opens a bypass channel around the regulator, allowing the piano to play loudly on full pump suction.