•I've been volunteering for some time now at the Scott Joplin House in St. Louis, Mo., and, given the fact that we have a player piano there which gets frequent use, I thought I'd reopen the whole can of worms related to the piano rolls credited to Scott Joplin. To my mind these rolls are quite perp...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- [ Ref 040522 MMDigest, Seek Ampico Rolls Played By Alexander Brailowsky Nearly five years ago Mechanical Music Digest very graciously published an announcement listing the Brailowsky Ampico rolls I had been seeking to enable one of my contacts, M...

•Bob Taylor gives a wonderfully concise description of the typical variations seen in Steinway Duo-Arts over the years [120211 MMDigest]. However, I would emphasize his point that "one cannot say the word 'always'" when speaking of the Duo-Art." In my limited experience, it seems that most individua...

•[ Duaine Hechler wrote in 130308 MMDigest: > I have a customer that needs a complete Duo-Art rebuild, but not > including piano action, case, etc. -- just player related parts > and pump. I need an estimate of the number of hours the work > would require. I've seen some perplexing questions posted ...

•I am trying to rebuild my Pratt & Read player action, Model F, Style 52, Serial # 58413, but I'm having a heck of a time with the 6-point wind motor. It was rebuilt once several years ago by a local technician who has since passed away. It's an odd motor with 6 pneumatics that are 3" by 3-1/2" each...

•QRS artist names on boxes The more I handle QRS piano rolls, the more curious I get about their practices in identifying the artist. In the beginning I assumed that roll makers would be similar to publishers of phonograph records and sheet music, who usually identify artists clearly (with the excep...

Mark Fontana wrote: > 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? I believe the answer is no. I encounted this question while work...

How do you pronounce "Welte"? Like most English speakers most probably Weltee (short i or ee?); in German it is pronounced with an e like in next, or the second e in remedy. But Welte & Sons Inc. was an American company too, so you could very well also pronounce it the usual American way. What if yo...

•The name of the book that contains the "up/down" theory of tune identification is: "The Directory of Tunes and Musical Themes," by Denys Parsons, Spencer Brown & Co., Cambridge, England, 1975. Long out of print. In this book one finds thousands of tunes, including popular and classical, with their ...

•Several people have wondered about Ampico expression response curves and have written to me privately about them, in regard to what they have heard or read. I probably haven't expressed myself very well about these dissimilarities and the actual real-world response, so let me simplify the two model...

•The uselessness of our mechanical music hobby. What a loaded title! Before I go any further, I should note what prompted me to ponder this question. The cue came from the nature classic book, "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold. In one chapter, the author briefly digresses from his thoughts on ...

•Is it a scam? Hi, I too ordered a DVD from these folks. Before I ordered it, I sent a message asking about whether it is in English. I did this partly because I wanted an English version if available and partly to see if there was anyone at the other end of the line, so to speak. I got a brief repl...

•Buying Rolls from the USA Some time ago there was a post from someone who was not pleased that he could not purchase rolls on an online auction site and have them shipped to the UK. It did not matter that in the auction description it clearly stated that no sales were made outside the United States...

•It's unlikely that I will find this special size sprocket so now I am researching the various ways that I can have it reproduced. Ultimately, I would like to get 6 of them made (see attached photos). I am starting to investigate CNC machining, casting or 3D printing. There are some very good videos...

•Regarding the posting of John McClelland's MMD 181221 article ("Seek Mason & Hamlin T100 Welte Pianos"), I may be able to shed a little light on serial numbers associated with T100 Mason and Hamlin Red Welte upright pianos. While visiting the Mason & Hamlin factory in Haverhill, Massachusetts, back...