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Scale Stick
Mills Violano Tracker Bar Scale
by Craig Smith, 090314 MMDigest

Here is the tracker bar diagram for the Violano.  It is from an original copy of the 'Violano Service Manual'.

Please forgive me if this sounds a bit offensive but I feel that I should add a warning to my message.  From your question I suspect that you know very little about the Violano.  Most collectors and all restorers would know where to find a diagram of the tracker bar or the wiring for a Violano, so it appears that you are a new owner or you are trying to restore a Violano for the first time.

That said, I would like to warn you that a Violano is not the type of instrument that you should mess with casually.  It is quite easy to damage various components or set fire to something.  In fact, it might be possible to set the whole machine on fire if you were really unlucky.  The relatively high current, a large capacity DC power source and a few dozen large inductors also make it possible for you to kill yourself quite easily.

If you don't know what you're doing, I'd suggest that you contact a few people who do and ask lots of questions _before_ you touch anything.

You might also consider joining one of the organizations (like MBSI or AMICA) that specializes in mechanical music.  You'll meet lots in wonderful, interesting people who are most helpful if you ask nicely.  In fact, one of the members (also a MMD subscriber) wrote the book on the Violano and another member makes a full time business of restoring them.

Regards from upstate New York,
Craig Smith
14 Mar 2009 10:42:38 -0400

P.S.: I restored my Violano many years ago.  I finished it the week _before_ Harvey Roehl published the Violano book.  Boy, I sure miss Harvey and Marion.

More information is in the book, "Mills Violano-Virtuoso," by Mike Kitner and Art Reblitz.  The Violano scale is given also in Appendix IV, "Musical Scales," of the recent book,  "The Golden Age of  Automatic Musical Instruments," by Reblitz, where the numerical list is accompanied by a list in order of musical functions, since the functions are scrambled as listed in numerical order from left to right on the roll.
 

This drawing seems to be from around the time that "hand played" rolls were introduced, starting with roll #1700, since it shows Lock-and-Cancel logic for the Damper Pedal on channels 121 & 123, and the Tremolo control is duplicated on channels 4 & 74.  See Scale Variations.


17 March 2009
 



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