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MMD > Archives > October 1997 > 1997.10.14 > 02Prev  Next


New "Ragtime Band Organ" Orchestrion
By Mike Knudsen

Yes, Hammacher-Schlemmer is a US company that sells neat-o gadgets
and home improvement items to folks with excess space and money.  :-)
I love reading their catalogs.  It's good that they've discovered
mechanical music.

That orchestrion they sell is just one of several available from Ragtime
Music, whose Web page can be reached from the MMD's.  Their product line
is well worth looking at the pictures -- whether to laugh, cry, or drool
is up to you.  :-)  I think the direct price is less than Ham-Schlem's.

They all use one of the standard rolls, probably "O"-rolls.

I've heard a few of their machines at the Chicagoland Slots & Jukes Show
at Pheasant Run, Geneval, IL (next one is this November 20th weekend).
The only ones I liked to listen to are the accordion-based ones.  The
calliope machines are thin sounding due to lack of deep bass pipes,
whereas the accordions bass buttons fill that bill nicely.  And the
squeezebox is fun to watch.

There seems to be a "standard" plastic calliope pipe set, gold matte
finish with black stoppers, that several makers use to build calliopes,
orchestrions, and those "train whistle" bellows gadgets.

Putting a glockenspiel atop a thin-sounding instrument doesn't strike
me as something I'd like to listen to for very long.

Don't recall if it's Ragtime or someone else who's been showing an
88-note piano with an accordion in the bottom.  Now that's pretty good
listening.

Mike Knudsen


(Message sent Tue 14 Oct 1997, 17:04:03 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  Band, New, Orchestrion, Organ, Ragtime

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