As a postscript to my last message:  I believe that the preservation of
the paper rolls and cardboard sheets are as equally important as the
preservation of original machines themselves.

This is first and foremost a paper roll driven hobby - MIDI only allows a
wider range of musical possibilities and expansion of repertoire for the
instruments.  I don't see MIDI ever replacing paper rolls, nor should it.

The best use for MIDI is in the creation of new music or duplication of
existing music to be set eventually to paper.  Of course, situations
arise where one may have a very rare instrument with little or no
original music that is a candidate for strictly MIDI operation.  But the
rolls themselves are worth preserving and repairing as they are the other
half of the hobby.

As a concluding thought, if one is planning to build an instrument from
scratch and doesn't happen to be a David Wasson, the use of MIDI control
throughout is the logical and economic way to go.  The instrumentation is
limited by the builder's imagination and money, so any scale with any
features may be laid out with a good music processor (if you know what
you are doing).

My two cents for the day...

S. K. Goodman