Greetings all from New Zealand,  Just to bring you up to date with
where we are.  I am pleased to say that the first major part of the
project is about to get under way.  This first year has been one of
obtaining knowledge and exploring New Zealand for lost parts of this
once beautiful instrument.  We had to start by examining what we had
and what we could find here in New Zealand to determine whether it was
possible to complete a restoration, and I am happy to say we believe
this to be possible.

We have a big 'wants list' that I am now compiling, including drums,
cymbals and traps, and I just hope we can find most of what we require
somewhere in the world.  As this is a restoration we are looking for
instruments that would have been around in 1915 when Wurlitzer put our
Photoplayer together.

Our biggest want is the 30-note xylophone which starts at G3 and goes
up to C6 and as there are so few Style K Photoplayers about we may
really struggle to find one.

Today I am hoping that some reader can help us with plans to construct
the wooden pipes.  We have found the Trumpet rank and the Vox Humana
rank of pipes (metal pipes) but will have to rebuild both the Violin
and Flute ranks.  Both these ranks are open pipes starting at C2 and
going up to C7 (five octaves).  However the bottom five notes (C2 to
E2) of the Flute rank are capped to keep them short enough to go in the
side cases.

Regards,
Don Paynter - The Photoplayer Restoration Trust
Opotiki, New Zealand
donann@kol.co.nz.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]