•Once upon a time I two thought how nice it would be to cut my own rolls. I thought of several different papers such as the paper used to wrap a hamburger. I asked someone I respected at the time and he had a lot to say about the paper used for rolls. That was twenty years ago and I can only remembe...

•Hi all-y'all. I'm usually just an observer to MMD, but I must say to Dan Armstrong, "Sorry about the moths!" :-( That was my piano that infested his shop. I never had any problems when the piano was in my house, but I suspect that the extreme humidity activated them. You see, it sat in my flooded h...

•Hi Everyone -- I have been a member of MMD for a number of months and have enjoyed the dialog and information that gets passed on via this newsletter. I continue to be amazed at the wealth of knowledge that is contained in the membership of this group. I would like to tap into that knowledge base a...

•Perhaps this is a dumb question, but I'm having trouble coming up with a good answer on my own, so I shall ask it. I'm contemplating the purchase of an orchestrion which is currently available to me. It will not fit into my present home, but I suspect that I will be able to have a place for it with...

•I certainly agree with Andy Taylor! I have seen hundreds of supposedly "restored" reproducing pianos. The majority of them have not been carefully restored because those who restore them do not fully understand their workings. One of the saddest things I ever saw was a fine Mason and Hamlin Ampico ...

•Recently, I noticed my Model A Ampico was getting unusually louder on some of the loud passages. The music seemed to be exaggerated. Upon checking the pump pressures, I found that they had slowly increased since I had carefully adjusted them during the winter months. It is summer now, and the humid...

•Re: 980822 MMDigest Bruce Clark suggests using a roller ironer for drying out damp-swollen rolls. Even the old companies couldn't get completely non-hygroscopic paper, but there are several modern recutters I will not name, especially here in the UK, who cut rolls dry and let owners sweat when our ...

•Much research has been carried out regarding mold and paper products in studying the preservation of library and archival materials. An excellent source for information is the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC): http://www.nedcc.org/ Their Technical Leaflet, "Protecting Books and Paper ...

•I've been away for a few weeks and just read Matthew Caulfield's argument that no lubrication is required for wood on metal friction surfaces and also Mike Kitner's recommendation for tallow imbedded with graphite. In 1953 I presented this question to a club of retired German machinists. They all b...

•Caution using rotary ironer with leather and pneumatic cloth [MMD 981018]. The heat can damage the rubber and age it prematurely. If the heat is too high, it will fry the leather. I have used an "Ironrite" rotary ironer for several years, mainly to remove wrinkles from paper rolls, but more so, to ...

•As I mentioned before, after getting a copy of Craig Brougher's great book, the Orchestrion Builder's Manual, I was so dissatisfied with my built-up nickelodeon, I ripped it apart and started from scratch. By the way, many months ago I mentioned an experiment I tried with filling the cracks in my s...

•Yes, you can clean wooden piano action parts in a blast cabinet with the right grade of glass beads or walnut shells. You can also reduce a fine piano action to driftwood in a few seconds if you're not careful. If you're going to try this, turn the pressure way down, to 15 or 20 psi. Hold the blast...

•I agree that hot hide glue is the best glue for player pianos. If you insist on using Elmer's white glue for veneer work then try this: Put the glue on the veneer and also put the glue on the part the veneer is going to be glued. Now let both pieces dry a little so they are just no longer tacky. Us...

•On the topic of saving players (and pianos, in general): In 1986, I purchased my player at auction for $20.00. There were two other pianos at the auction that evening: another upright (non-player) and a white grand piano. The upright sold for $40.00 and was the highest priced piano of that evening...

•Regarding the comments by Andy Taylor: If I ever saw a piano with the pins pounded in I'd head in the opposite direction. Loose pins can be dealt with in one of a couple of ways. One way when the problem in not severe it to position the piano so that the pin block is horizontal and use pin block tr...

•In domestic pianos made between the late 1800s through the late 1920s, rough piano plate castings were almost always filled with a black material (which I've never positively identified). This was sanded to a very smooth finish before it was painted gold. When the finish on an old piano plate deter...

•The band organ at Ontario Beach Park in Rochester, New York, is out of commission because it has been tearing up rolls on rewind. The rolls, standard Wurlitzer style 165 rolls, are chucked on the top spool and wind off the back side across the tracker bar and onto the bottom take-up spool. There se...

•[ Re: letter from Patrick Boeckstijns in 001007 MMDigest ] > There is a crack in the soundboard. Well, it's actually the opposite. > There is no space, but it looks like the soundboard didn't crack > because of shrinking, but because it has expanded (in top left corner) Could be partly due to uneve...

•I found Pete Knobloch's note in the 001023 MMD, "Player Music Roll Brake Adjustments," all too true. Everything he says about the dynamics of the player system occurs also in the Wurlitzer band organ transport system, in our case even down to the detail about someone having oiled the brake pads. I ...

•By 1915 Wurlitzer was using its characteristic green paper in making band organ rolls. Roll 6516, datable to 1915, just passed through my hands on its way back to its owner, Bill Black. It is a typical green-paper roll, once you get beyond the aged and browned paper of its first few windings. Q. Da...