•Hi MMD -- Due to advanced age and accompanying health issues I have decided to sell the majority of my collection of mechanical music instruments. All listed instruments play; some are recent restorations and some are older. Most instruments have been regularly tuned and maintained by Bob Stout. Jo...

Having restored several pianos, one procedure has always perplexed me; that is how to set the bearing. Not the method, but at what point should the bearing be set to which will provide the absolute optimum tonal quality. Is there anyone out there which could provide some further insight based on the...

•Hi y'all, I have perplexing problems with rebuilding a "rebuilt" 1938 Spinet Ampico. The piano was restrung with new hammers maybe eight years ago. A friend bought it from the Cleveland area and brought it back to Buffalo. When a roll was put in, it would rush through sections where there were lots...

To Larry Smith and Peter Smakula. I'm a bit perplexed -- what is really your goal: to make a cylinder of music or to develop brand-new techniques? In digest 950802 Larry says, "this is the 90's and we can do better [than a hand-made instrument]." But in digest 950807 you say you want to build the mu...

Robbie Rhodes wrote: > To Larry Smith and Peter Smakula. I'm a bit perplexed -- what is > really your goal: to make a cylinder of music or to develop brand-new > techniques? I think you caught the goals, but you mixed them up. I wish to make a cylinder for an original song. I'm not picky about how o...

> From: Joseph Hutter > > > Having restored several pianos, one procedure has always perplexed me; that > is how to set the bearing. Not the method, but at what point should the > bearing be set to which will provide the absolute optimum tonal quality. > > Is there anyone out there which could provi...

•George, This is a topic that has long been perplexing to me and perhaps your effort may prove to be a major factor in resolving this unique problem. I have in excess of two hundred and fifty "A" rolls in my collection. I would guess that originals and recuts number the same. For many years, the onl...

•Douglas & all, Yes, this does seem a perplexing problem until you realize that you do not actually fill the length of tubing -- only enough air enters to reduce the pressure in the entire vessel (in this case, the length of tubing) to move the pouch. Granted, there is some friction in the length of...

> From: rhodes@foxtail.com (Robbie Rhodes) > To: rolls@foxtail.com > > To Larry Smith and Peter Smakula. I'm a bit perplexed -- what is > really your goal: to make a cylinder of music or to develop brand-new > techniques? =) I've been thinking about this stuff for so long, I may be jumping around a ...

Nancy asks "Where are the music box people ?" Well, I'm here, and since there is a problem that has perplexed me for a while I'll throw it out to the group. I will intentionally make it a bit wordy in an attempt to catch up with the, to date, small amount of space devoted to musical box topics in MM...

•I just looked at a job this afternoon (here we go again). A local, self-proclaimed expert was perplexed that his second attempt at rebuilding the secondary valves produced more of a problem. I pulled apart three valves to examine the pouches. The first one had some kind of rubber: elastic, but it t...

•This barely fits into the category of Mechanical Music, but it is nonetheless for all the music lovers here. Of all his 7 symphonies, the 4th is Sibelius's most perplexing, and the most difficult to pull off. It has almost no true "thematic material", but through some sort of alchemy seems thematic...

•I've tried working on 'birdcage' pianos for customers to save them the disappointment of having wasted their money, but it's always been a hopeless undertaking. The most frustrating and perplexing thing about them is, how did they ever tune the damn things? The overdamper wires obstruct access to t...

•Hello All! I'm looking over the "Fine Arts" rider on my home insurance. Feeling that it's coverage is undervalued, I'll soon be making an adjustment call to my underwriter. Most perplexing are the 100 or so "Collector's Classics" rolls, put out by Don Rand in California. I purchased them in a large...

•I'm trying to get a recently-acquired Link in operating order, and one of the more perplexing problems is that someone removed the original coin accumulator and substituted a mess of relays and bare wire suitable for Boris Karloff. The original chute is laying in the bottom of the unit, but a previ...

•Hi all, A friend is working on a Robert Loud player piano that is quite early. It has a mechanical tracking system that rides against floating take-up spool flanges and he is quite perplexed because he hasn't figured out how to get the little beast to work. Any thoughts, comments, or words of wisdo...

I (Mark Fontana) originally asked: > > Are the rolls generally encoded such that when played on a standard-sized > > takeup spool, the tempo will remain as intended despite the effect of > > othe increasing layers of paper accelerating the transport speed? BJELE@telxon.mis.telxon.com (JELEN BILL) re...

•I couldn't help but comment on Bill Chapman's experience with Bekins Van Lines. I moved from South Florida to Eastern Connecticut almost a year ago and my employer uses Bekins. I had them move 2 players along with our household goods (and they charge extra to move the pianos). While they seemed to ...

•Robbie, I went to the address you linked on the MMD yesterday and tried 2 players on file app_002c.mp3 Neither AudioActive or Nero could play it. I get a window that says, "Unexpected file format." Somehow, the mp3 file you have at the Sounds page gets automatically categorized as a RealPlayer file...

•Hi All, I've just finished uploading a very interesting article that was written by Craig Brougher in which he addresses The Future of Mechanical Music. What makes this article especially thought provoking is that Craig identifies the real 'problem' and offers an iron clad 'solution' that could rea...