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MMD > Archives > August 2025 > 2025.08.03 > 01Prev  Next


Seek 31-note Rolls for Raffin 31-note Organ
By Wallace Venable

In the 1 August 2025 Mechanical Music Digest (25.08.01 MMD) James
Williams said, "Please let me know of anyone making 31-note organ
rolls available."

I know there are a number of shops (probably more than a dozen) making
rolls which will play without problems on a Raffin 31-er crank organ.

The really great source is Melvyn Wright. I have purchased 20-note
rolls of his arrangements and had him punch both 20-er and 31-er rolls
of arrangements I have made on a custom basis. His services are prompt
and quality is excellent.

On his website he says, 

"If you want music for your Fair Organ or Street Organ, please
contact me for a copy of my latest music catalogue for your
particular organ. I supply music for a large number of different
scales of organ, so it is not practical for me to publish all my
price lists on-line. Before getting over-excited and throwing
a wobbly, please check the list of organ scales below to see whether
I supply music for your particular scale:

"20 note standard roll scale (Raffin, Deleika, Hofbauer, etc.)
20 note John Smith busker (now ready-cut)
20 note Castlewood organ (now ready-cut)
26 note Alderman, Trueman
26 note John Smith Universal
31-note Raffin, Pell, etc. "

"Pipes of Pan" (POP) in the US has 28 rolls for "Raffin 31" listed
on their website. Given that James is in Utah and our current tariff
situation is a bit unclear, that might give POP an edge in his search.
I have purchased 20-note rolls from them and found them very good.
They produce two 20-er rolls of American Circus Music which I arranged,
see https://www.popmusicrolls.com/catalog/raffin31/ 

A C Pilmer Automatic Music Ltd. Says, "We can also supply new music
rolls for 26- and 31-note organs."

I have not done business with Pilmer, but have crossed paths with
them at COAA events. Their repair work is top of the line, and
I would expect the same from their music rolls:
https://www.acpilmer.com/hand-turned-organs/ 

Your organ's builder, Raffin Orgelbau, still has a website, although
their prominence has fallen since the introduction of MIDI organs.
They say "Wide selection of music rolls and MIDI files for 20- and
31-notes. Please request our extensive music roll list!" on
https://www.raffin.de/en/music-rolls.html 

It appears that they may have 251 different 31-note rolls available,
based on what I see on https://drehorgel-musikrollen.de/8-31-tonstufen 

Wallace Venable


(Message sent Sun 3 Aug 2025, 22:14:46 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  31-note, Organ, Raffin, Rolls, Seek

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