•Charles, There are quite often original rolls for Gem and Concert Roller Organs on my website's Buy/Sell/Trade page at http://www.rollerorgans.com/Roller_Organ_Buying.htm Currently, I personally have a list there of over 100 titles to choose from! New titles, and some recuts, for the Roller Organ a...

•Michael, I believe that the 20-note Peerless rolls are available from Ed Schmidt. See http://www.actionwebcreations.com/smr/ or contact him at The 20-note rolls are listed under "Bijou", which is the same instrument in a case made for the US market. Todd Augsburger - Roller Organs http://www.roller...

•Just to clarify the scam problem: Here in the US (at least), it is inadequate to simply allow the check to clear. The banking system is structured so that a forged cashier's check _will_ clear, the money _will_ be available in you account, and the local bank _will_ declare that all is well. But whe...

•Larry, (1) You are correct that the reservoir contracts (moves down) as the vacuum builds. 2) The "patches" you describe on the exhauster bellows are flap valves which exhaust the air. They are supposed to be attached at each end, and act as "check valves" allowing air to pass out of the bellows. A...

•Yes, it is necessary to open up the bellows to get to the inner flap valves on a Gem Roller Organ. (I understand that it's "possible" to do a "bellows-ectomy" and surgically operate on the flap valves, but that would only make sense if the bellows cloth had already been replaced with new.) Those wh...

•In regard to the three problems mentioned: 1. The split wooden connecting rod should clamp over the crankshaft by the tightening of a single wood screw. Are the screw's threads stripped? If so, the best solution would be to clean the oil from the screw hole, with a solvent if necessary, and glue in...

•Ken, I know there are some rolls for Chein Melody Player available from Kevin McElhone. See the Buy/Sell/Trade page at http://www.rollerorgans.com/Roller_Organ_Buying.htm Todd Augsburger - Roller Organs http://www.rollerorgans.com/

•John Spradley's discussion of his "diplacusis" reminded me of an experience recounted by my brother-in-law, who regularly played in a jazz band back in the '70s. At the time, he played keyboard "by ear", having had no formal training. One week he had a rather serious ear infection, and the doctor p...

•I've been interested in the perspectives presented on the "correctness" of suggesting that a questioner "buy the book" when it directly answers the request. I suppose I have the right to answer, since I am both a distributor of Kevin McElhone's "The Organette Book" and author/self publisher of the ...

•> Can anyone provide me with an estimate of what these dollars > may be worth in US terms today? The US Historic Consumer Price Index from 1800-1998 may be found on the University of Michigan's web site, at http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/historiccpi.html Or, 1913 to present Consumer Price Index m...

•> Rubber became useful after the invention of the vulcanisation > process by Mr. Goodyear in 1939. Before that all bellows were > made from leather. Note that the correct year for Mr. Goodyear's discovery of vulcanization was 1839, and there must have been plenty of bellows cloth in use by 1900. I ...

•Although I chose to build a cart for myself, here are a couple of links I found for street organ carts: Custom Made Street Organ Carts: The Great Canadian Nickelodeon Company, Ltd. http://members.aol.com/tgcnc/customcart.htm Carts which fit their organs: Dean Organ Builders http://www.deanorgans.co...

•[ Susan A. Carter wrote in 040521 MMDigest: >> Hello, I am seeking to buy a Clariona organette in working order >> from the period approximately 1880-1885. Susan, You'd be welcome to list an ad on the mechanical music Buy/Sell/Trade page on my web site. See: http://www.rollerorgans.com/Roller_Organ...

•Rick Cooley made some good comments in the 040623 MMDigest about the future of automated music, and asked for comments. So I will comment. First of all, I'm not really from the younger set that Rick mentions, but at 46 I'm perhaps from another perspective. I'm a recent collector, first becoming act...

•Debby, You may get recut Organina rolls from Ed Schmidt at http://www.music-rolls.com/ or Highly recommended! Todd Augsburger - Roller Organs http://www.rollerorgans.com/

•I did a double-take over the $3500.00 eBay listing of a plain Gem Roller Organ (item number 3737775601), and since I saw it soon after it was listed, I wrote a tactful email to the seller, suggesting that they were unlikely to realize such a high price, as the most recent Gem sold on eBay for less ...

•Just a reminder that the search engines make it easy to search the full text of the MMD Archives. For example, to find all the references to "Jansen" in the archives, I would (1) go to www.google.com and (2) enter a search string that tells the engine to search _only_ on MMD for the reference "Jans...

•[ Todd kindly answered this request sent to MMDigest. -- Robbie >> Hi do you repair or know anybody that repairs Ithaca Autophones? >> Steve Steve, the principles of the Autophone are not much different than other pressure organettes, so many of those who do general organette repair would be qualif...

•I've been thinking about "compression" of musical data. If you are familiar with the Autophone organettes (the most popular being a simplistic instrument with hand-operated bellows) you've perhaps seen their tune strips. What is unique is that they are driven at two speeds, depending upon the immed...

•Art, Your description of the Imhof & Mukle orchestrion barrel rotation speed is indeed fascinating; I had no idea it could be controlled in that manner. I'd think it would be difficult to regulate the slower speed by simply increasing friction. Is there a significant transition time as the air-brak...