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Mystery Rolls
By John Phillips

Hi everybody. Recent correspondence with Wayne Stahnke about his View program and with Terry Smythe about his Marque Ampico has got me doing something I should have done years ago. That is, I've finally cataloged all the Ampico rolls and Duo-Arts I've been squirreling away for years against the day the respective players are finally rebuilt - a day that recedes steadily into the future. But we all know about that. Anyway, thanks gentlemen, for providing the impetus.

So what's the point of this message? Well, in the roll-sorting process I've come across a few odd rolls that may interest somebody.

Three are European rolls. Two are Empeco rolls (not Ampico!) but they aren't the usual 88n themed rolls for a pedal player. These rolls have snakebite theme perforations and they also have some expression coding on both the treble and bass sides. But there's not much of it; it's much more sparse than the coding on a Recordo roll. Most of the coding consists of very short perfs. a long way apart. I guess that a lock-and-cancel sytem was involved. The third roll seems to use the same system but it is a different brand. There is almost no information at all on the box or the label. The label has the roll no. and title of the piece, surrounded by a border consisting of a row of little black squares. The squares are interrupted at the top and sides by the word "Amati" in very small print and by the word "Comb." at the bottom. That's it.

Does anybody have any idea what this system might be?

I've also turned up a big QRS Solo-Elle roll and two QRS Automatic rolls. I believe these latter are Apollo-X coded rolls.

I would be good to see these rolls end up where they are wanted. Is anybody interested - I'd be happy to swap them for not much.

John Phillips.


(Message sent Tue 18 Jun 1996, 00:56:08 GMT, from time zone GMT+1000.)

Key Words in Subject:  Mystery, Rolls

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