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Re: Aeolian Player Organ Question
By Jim Weisenborne

Dave,

The player unit which you described was the garden variety Aeolian
116-note semi-automatic player unit. Their Duo-Art unit had 176-holes
and the earlier duo-art units could play both the 116-note rolls as well
as the 176-note rolls.

No, this player cannot use the Hammond rolls. Those rolls are actually
Skinner rolls. The Hammond (Skinner) tracker bar consists of a single
row of holes, not a double row, staggered, as in the Aeolian. The rolls
are not interchangeable. I believe the Skinner has 112 holes.

The Aeolian unit worked entirely from the air in the console. To say the
least, their tracking scheme couldn't holda candle to Skinner's. Believe
it or not, Aeolian issued about 1500 rolls! Sadly, their paper wasn't
the best. Their rolls tend to tear easily, especially on rewind.

But what on earth do you plan to do with this unit? With the exception
of Kimball and Moller, nobody else used the same width paper. Compared
to player pianos, organ players were sold in such small quantities that
it's difficult to find any rolls at a decent price, to say nothing about
worrying whether you're going to be able to play these paper rolls in a
few years. I ought to know. I own about 2700 organ rolls and as soon as
my solid state organ relay is installed, I am transferring them to the
computer.



(Message sent Tue, 24 Oct 95 10:58:01 EDT , from time zone -0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Aeolian, Organ, Player, Question