Hi all.  Kim Bunker here from http://www.playerpianos.com  I was
reading Bob Humes report on Richard Vance's electronic book, "Rebuilding
the Aeolian Orchestrelle, Model W," and I do somewhat agree with some
of what he wrote regarding publishing of Mr. Vance's book.  This is his
statement I wish to share.  Bob Humes wrote:


>> I would make it available for download on the web site so that
>> anyone could download and print it with as high a quality color
>> printer as they want thus creating their own "book".  In the case
>> of Richard Vance's information, I would add a cover page with a
>> picture of Richard and information about him so that 50 years from
>> now people would remember who he was and what he did to contribute
>> to the hobby.  Hobbyists over time could email and otherwise share
>> the file even if MMD is no longer around (heaven forbid!), allowing
>> future versions of Acrobat or its successor programs to keep the
>> information alive in electronic form.


I do very much agree with Bob here.  Mr. Vance obviously was an
extremely eloquent and technical writer who carefully put together
the 18-chapter rebuilders guide to the Model W Aeolian Orchestrelle
with several illustrations and photographs.  I set down and read this
electronic book with amazement as to his detail for perfection at
every turn.  It truly is a work of art and should not be forgotten.
I personally think the reason for not completing his work was that he
understood that more needed to be done.  Aeolian produced several
models and changes in each of them as they were built.  This is also
something that can be added at a later time, like a "Volume 2."

After carefully reading his book I agree with Bob.  Something should be
done to preserve Richard Vance's book.  I have been writing about my
restorations of orchestrelle's for quite a few years and Richard's work
sets down the basic knowledge on how to do a proper restoration on a
model W from scratch.  I think the only thing it needs would be the
adding of the smaller and larger models also their variations from the
factory in the model lines during their production.  This would
probably finish a second volume and make this idea a reality.

Then a great title would be "Rebuilding Any Aeolian Orchestrelle"

Thanks for now.
Sincerely,
Kim Bunker