•Dear MMDers, Does any one know the correct tempo the play the "Farmer's Wedding" and "Black & White Rag" 65-note roll scan MIDI files at? I tried to play the MIDI files at different tempos but none of the notes playing at the right speed via my piano sound on my organ. Any help would very useful, B...

•John Heath wrote in 091202 MMDigest: > I wonder if there would be any interest if I polished up the > software to make it usable by other enthusiasts? Hello, John. I'm in the process of building a large band organ/dance organ, but am building it with several conventional pipe organ features, namely...

•Several emails arrived as a result of the item in MMDigest 091202. Here are answers to some of the queries. My organ presently has two ranks of small pipes, 37 Bourdon, and 33 reed oboes, from a church organ, plus a single long folded pipe covering two bass octaves driven by four polyphonic oscilla...

•Ampico B owners are well aware that some "A" coded rolls don't sound very good on the "B". The performance can fall flat, sounding at half volume when full fortissimo is required. I've grappled with that dilemma for years. Since I am a student of Ampico coding, and understand the cause of this shor...

•I am in need of a complete roll frame for an A-roll. Must be complete with motor, either all electric or pneumatic, and both upper and lower spools and connecting hardware, tracker bar, etc. Yeah, I'm asking for a lot. I do not have a milling machine, so cannot make some parts, so having everything...

You can play A-rolls on the Orchestrelle. They have to be re-wound on 65 note spools. If there is such a thing as an A-roll test roll, that might work as an Orchestrelle test roll. If not I would also be interested in a test roll. Fritz Gellerman

•I take issue a little bit with the comment by the editor to the effect that "One camp of rebuilders restores the instrument to new or better condition, whereas the other camp repairs the instrument to less-than-perfect condition because the owner can't afford a complete restoration. Only a Duo-Art ...

•Sorry to have been "lurking" so long on a topic that's close to home for me. I play a large cart crank organ (Raffin 31/84) and have made many arrangements for it, including my own compositions. I used to punch music rolls, but now it plays directly via a MIDI interface I built into the organ, usin...

•[ Ref. "Declining Interest in Mechanical Music" ] A week or so ago I wrote of my plans to attend Birmingham Jazz Festival in the UK with two player pianos. I had previously expressed doubt about the current feeling of doom and gloom, and suggested that we see what happens. This is what transpired: ...

•Dear Folks, I know some of you will think I have committed a horrible sin but I would like to describe the results of a modification to an Ampico A that lets it now play B rolls. First of all, let me say that the modification was developed by Tim Westman and he built the components to implement it...

•There has been some discussion about band organs and the "O" roll. I believe everyone has concurred that the "O" roll is for a coin piano and would not play a band organ very well. One person suggested the "G" roll. The Wurlitzer Pianino roll was also mentioned and I remember the Wurlitzer that pla...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- Dear MMD Advisors: I recently acquired a Musical Casket organette, with 14 notes, that doesn't play. The machine came with eight rolls but won't play a note. Here's my observations: (1) When a roll is attached, I can crank it accordingly but no s...

•Bruce Brockett said, "I'm planning to build a John Smith 20-note busker pipe organ and would like add a DC motor to play it when I don't feel like cranking." I built a manually operated Smith Senior 20. All Smith 20 organs wind the roll onto a take-up spool. Of course, as you play a roll the take-u...

•Michael Robin Haggie says [081214 MMDigest]: > Is there a mechanical instrument produced that will play > traditional player piano rolls and convert them acoustically > and/or digitally without the piano itself? You may wish to consider loaning your rolls to someone within the roll-scanning communi...

•> The basic question is, can or should a Duo-Art system be able > to play a 3-note bass chord on Accompaniment level 0? Yes, a Duo-Art should be able to play that chord in "Clair De Lune" softly, provided that - the channels in the stack were all re-shellacked, and - the valve wells and - the pouch...

•I have a custom-built A-roll player unit capable of running a 61-note instrument that I would like to sell. The player unit was used aboard an excursion boat in West Virginia to play a 32-note, air-operated calliope. I was advised by a friend to list it on this site. The player unit was located in ...

•The Wurlitzer 165 organ plays two reiterating snare drum beaters from one hole in the roll. One beater is connected to a valve that causes it to reiterate and forces the other "slave" beater to alternate with it. Ideally, a single punch in the roll would produce a single snare drum tap, but in gene...

•Hi All, I saw a post from Robert Linnstaedt today about harmonica reeds so I decided to add some info. If you are thinking of building a small mechanical organ using harmonica reeds, watch out for the following pitfalls. Harmonica reeds require a large volume of air to operate and the distance betw...

•A New Standard in American Orchestrion Design Dear Friends, I had the pleasure of receiving a phone call from Craig Brougher who offered to play a couple of numbers over the wire from the Ding-A-Ling so I could at least hear it, as my ability to travel is limited. My first thought was that it sound...

•Hi again, I believe that my Ampico is in need of a major overhaul but at least for the next few months I don't have the time or energy to do it. Perhaps when I finish restoring my backlog of musical boxes (but they grow faster than I finish them). The other problem is that my glue pot is in Califor...