Re: What is "Solodant" Control?
By Dan Wilson
Terry Macham wrote in Digest 970113:
> I ran across a Weber (Canadian) player piano the other day. There
> is a lever located to the right of the tracker bar labeled "Solodant."
> What is the function of this control?
"Solodant" means the same as "Themodist" -- it's the system that employs the little snakebite perforations on the edges of "Solo", "Accentuated" or "Metrostyle-Themodist" rolls. Usually (but there are always exceptions) Solodant cut the playing down to a fixed power level and Themodist cut it down to the degree you're holding the treble and bass slide levers over; and the "snakebites" undo the subduing for those notes starting at the same instant. Result, "snakebitten" notes stand out above the others. A useful add-on, in my view -- nearly all UK players use this system in one form or another.
What intrigues me is that a Weber piano should have this label, because "Solodant" was the system used by the rivals to Aeolian Co. who owned the Weber marque. Was this a piano converted to a player by someone else ? Does the motor have five or six bellows, Terry ? What other controls and labels are there ?
There was a long and badly-written account by me of Solodant in MMD 96.09.11, subject: "More Foot Pumping".
Dan Wilson
[ That subject of that article is perennial, Dan. Could you re-write it
[ sometime for publication again in the Digest? -- Robbie
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