Hello, everyone. During the past week or so, there was talk of "Duo-Art Vorsetzers." I have one. It was built for the late Irving Tushinsky of Superscope by Mel Shores in Los Angeles in 1965. Mel also built another identical one for Irving's brother, Joe Tushinsky. That one is in Japan now, or so I ...

The "Four-system Vorsetzer" I saw in Tokyo may be the same thing that Tom Steuer got at the auction, instead of the another "Four-system Vorsetzer", I think. Tom Steuer wrote: > The Tushinsky piano roll collection and most of the instruments, > including my four-system Vorsetzer, were sold at auctio...

•FOR SALE: Red Welte Reproducing Piano Rolls. This is part of the fabulous roll collection of the late Joseph Tushinsky. We would like to sell the entire collection of 1025 rolls to one buyer. For information, serious inquiries only, contact Ralph Schack, RSchack@compuserve.com or 310-538-5000 West ...

•Will, You did a great job describing the minimum volumes! As all the hullabaloo about music lovers and such, the real answer in self-playing pianos is playing softly!! Joe Tushinsky [owner of Marantz Pianocorder] used to say, "The artist shouldn't interfere with the conversation," or something like...

•I have 200 Ampico rolls which I would like to sell in bulk quantity. All are in good playing condition and come from the Joseph Tushinsky collection, a small portion of which I bought at auction. Boxes are mostly very good, a few are excellent, and a few are fair. I am not selling any rolls in poor...

•I have a number of LP's of recordings of Welte rolls by famous composers, and also some of the series that Joe Tushinsky, the president of Sony Superscope, made on his Boesendorfer Imperial Grand using a Welte Vorsetzer. Some were actually Ampico Rolls but a number of Welte rolls were done first. a...

•The post to MMD about mechanical music in Los Angeles jogged some old memories for me. In the mid to later 1970s I was in the Los Angeles area that winter and I contacted Joseph Tushinsky there. He had previously purchased from me a Red Welte Vorsetzer and a Welte Licensee player grand with a side ...

•To add a bit of "rubber band" roll history to this subject. I was fortunate to be able to purchase the remainder of the Joseph Tushinsky Ampico roll collection several years ago. Upon receiving the rolls, which were stored in some type of tin metal boxes, every roll had a brittle, dried rubber band...

•I have a one-of-a-kind Welte Vorsetzer for sale. It was partially built by Jim Miller, who also made the three-system Vorsetzer for Joe Tushinsky. Since then it has been rebuilt and has had many additions including an E-Roll Player so now it plays both rolls and E-Rolls. There are too many features...

I recently purchased a unique Vorsetzer that plays Duo-Art, Welte (Red label _and_ Welte Licensee), and Ampico rolls. As a result, I am now offering my Duo-Art Vorsetzer for sale. I use it all the time as a push-up to my Yamaha Disklavier grand piano, and transfer Duo-Art and 88-note rolls to Diskla...

Hello! This is my first letter. I am not very good at English, so I may make mistakes, but please don't laugh at me. Tom Steuer wrote in 970327 MMDigest: > The Vorsetzer is in excellent condition ... It was custom built for > Irving Tushinsky by Mel Shores of Los Angeles in 1965 and is one of two > ...

I am very excited to be involved universally in this group -- having received responses from Japan and England on two related items, and if I may, I'd like to respond to each using this network. The information -- both ways -- might be interesting to others as well. First to Megumi Imai of Japan who...

•Several months ago, I offered my Duo-Art Vorsetzer, and while there was considerable interest, here and abroad, I have not yet sold it. It is still available, and I would like to sell it. This instrument is electrically operated, was built for the Tushinsky family in 1965 by Mel Shores in Los Angel...

•Who has the largest roll collections around the world? Do you know of any large repository of music rolls of any kind? My guesses would include: Chicago Public Library, who has complete collections of literature on rolls. Do they also have rolls? The Piano Archive -- Somewhere. Where are they, anyw...

•In Digest 970819, Don Teach describes the acquisition of the Pianocorder technology by Yamaha. Here are two brief articles from the industry press about that situation. From THE MUSIC TRADES (Jan 1990): The Winners and Losers of the 1980's: Losers: Marantz Pianocorder (The Perils of a Bad Forecast)...

•Hi, everyone... I am pleased to share with you that I received my Four-Way Forsetzer today, my "Ampi-Art-Mignon" (or is it a Duo-Co-Welte??) -- the mechanical wonder built by Jim Miller in 1972 for Joe Tushinsky and just restored magnificently by Ron Sanchez of The Player Shop in Monrovia, CA. This...

•The piano's true rarity rests in its having been so large a Steinway piano with a Welte mechanism installed. Jim Miller and Ken Caswell, I believe, worked on the piano and may have installed the additional Licensee/Green Roll spoolbox with electric roll drive common to both spoolboxes. Joe Tushinsk...

•The dual-spoolbox Steinway Welte reported on by Tom Steuer in yesterday's MMD is quite familiar to me, since I am the person who designed and built the dual spoolbox. I performed this work in the middle 1960s while the piano was owned by Kenneth Caswell. A decade or so later, sometime in the mid 19...

•Robbie, as a former Marantz sales representative, installer and dealer, I can answer a few things about Pianocorder. When introduced in 1978, the wholesale dealer price was $800 plus an additional $150 for the record option. Initially, to become a dealer you had to sign up for quite a few kits in a...

•Adrian, the Licensee rolls will not play on a Red machine because the roll feeds from bottom to top, and the tracker bar is longer, to accommodate the 12-7/8" Red rolls, as opposed to the 11-1/4" Licensee. Jim Miller made a Vorsetzer to accommodate all 3 major reproducing systems for Joe Tushinsky ...