•I have done some reed voicing for pipe organs. It basically boils down to -- - being sure the tongue and shallot surfaces are absolutely clean and true; use ultra-fine sandpaper to buff these to a mirror finish; - curving the reed tongue with a rounded burnisher so that it has an exponential curve ...

•My 5'8" AR Mason and Hamlin Ampico has a serial number of 33089. Molded into the plate is "AX6". The existing Mason and Hamlin records show this as having been shipped to the Cable Music House in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, in October of 1924. This is a very early Mason Ampico; it may be the o...

•Ray Scheffy asks in 141115 MMD for help in tracking down the history of his Wurlitzer 146-B band organ. A good starting point in tracing the lineage of a Wurlitzer instrument is to determine its serial number. On a Wurlitzer band organ the serial number is rubber-stamped in black ink numbers about ...

•I have made replacement cork stoppers for a 33-key Hooghuys street organ (LH595). Champagne corks were used, since there is no damage from the use of a corkscrew. I made a jig to fit on my Myford ML7 lathe and used a sanding disc to remove cork whilst rotating the cork about its axis. The first san...

•[ Ref. Lee Rothrock in 200627 MMDigest ] Hi, That's a trumpeter clock on the wall and it plays about 6 pipes from a small cylinder. And, yes, they are reed pipes, specifically "free" reed pipes (like in accordion or mouth organ), not beating reeds like in a band organ. Each pipe has a small resonat...

For several years I operated and maintained 43-key and 52-key air calliopes, made by Tangley and National. The ubiquitous Rootes blower had poor oil seals, and so SAE-30 lube oil was sucked into the air supply and combined with ambient dust. I always had with me a short piece of brass shim stock to ...

This message was recently on Usenet: ---begin quote---¶ From: cramirez@midtown.net (Cecil Ramirez)¶ Subject: Re: Mason and Hamlin company¶ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 04:14:49 GMT Hello, Readers of RMMP: On 18 Jan 1997 17:45:42 GMT, instdiv@aol.com (Instdiv) wrote: > Mason & Hamlin is now owned by PianoD...

Two years ago at the Union IL swap meet I purchased a used 20-note Deleika monkey/grinder organ, the style that should go on a small cart. It's in fine-looking shape and beautifully built inside, looking almost new inside and out. I have a few rolls and have Hal O'Rourke's latest catalog of music so...

•One of the really nice aspects of trolling around the web is that occasionally one hooks something truly out of the ordinary. I thought that I'd been reasonably knowledgeable about the history of early music synthesizers, but the details of the RCA synthesizer were indeed a surprise to me! The web ...

•We had to move into metal pipes. Our Tuba Mirabela is a very sweet pipe with a rich, brassy sound. The band organ needed a _brass_ sound. We have built a new trumpet pipe that produces the sound we desired. The wooden trumpet which we used in the prototype organ sounded just like the trumpets of th...

•Bob Loesch wrote: > I've an identical movement that I bought last summer from Nancy > Fratti (Thanks, Nancy!), that came with some blank books and a punch. > Neat toy, and an all-around nice box, despite its "Made In China" > label. Actually, the movement is a Sankyo, made in Japan, and has > quite...

•Robbie wrote: > I believe that the difference in sound between metal and wooden pipes > is mostly due to the shape. Sheet metal can be rolled and soldered > to make round pipes, whereas wooden slabs are easily glued in poly- > gonal shapes. A simple wood pipe should sound the same if duplicated > i...

•-- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD -- [ Johan has enjoyed MMDigest for a long time via the web site, [ and has just joined the MMD Pipes Forum. He is a professor [ in the Dept. of speech, music and hearing at the Royal Institute [ of Technology of Sweden. (Pronounce his name like ...

•Jim Quashnock wrote: > I am not aware of any "reed" ranks which are totally made > with flue pipes. Maybe someone else can shed light on this. Jim, (and anyone else who may be interested in this), Thanks to the genius of William Haskell in the early part of this century, quite a number of very imit...

•In MMD 000418 Johan Liljencrants wrote: > The frequency is quite a lot higher than the natural one for the reed > (as determined only from its mass and elasticity) because it does not > oscillate in a sinusoidal fashion like a free reed. It rather goes > in a sequence of half-periods -- when trying...

•>[ But why is Ben Franklin's 'Armonica' considered scientific? One >[ could also sound a saucer bell with a rosined bow. What's the >[ difference if an organ pipe is designed using scientific methods >[ versus "cut and try?" -- Robbie Good question, and I'm afraid that the answer isn't very satisfa...

•My planned "Florida Museum of Music" is no longer a go, so all accumulated items must be sold. Here are the items I have gotten together and their prices (offers considered): 1. Keith Prowse Ltd. English coin-op barrel piano. Turn of the century piece. Original finish and painted floral decorations...

•Hello MMDer's! I have a player piano that some time ago I rebuilt into a nickelodeon. It plays "A" rolls. I have a mandolin attachment but not a second instrument. I have decided to add (most likely build) a xylophone, as I feel when I'm playing rolls I am missing out on a lot. I have bell bars alr...

•In relation to the thread of xylophones: When you hit a drumhead, xylophone, string, or whatever with a beater, then, second from energy/loudness, the contact time T is the most important parameter. This determines the timbre. With the impact you inject a 'source' signal, or excitation. The spectru...

•Hi Group, I have recently acquired an organ of unknown origin. All of the guesses so far are that it is a German or Dutch. I have sent photos to Robbie that I hope he can post on MMD. It is the first time I have tried to send digital photos. I will list below all that I know or have been told about...