•[ Ref. "Piano Tuning By Ear vs. Electronic Tuning Device" [ in 030605 MMDigest. There is no comparison to electronic tuning devices of today and those of 25 years ago. The Piano Technicians Guild sponsored two friendly "tune-offs" between Jim Coleman and Virgil Smith. Each tuned a piano, one aurall...

•I represent Sound Research MIDI products. Knowing that some devices need more current than the .5 ampere driver of the ULN2803, I provide outboard drivers in groups of 32. These come as Darlington transistors, or FETs, relays or triacs. The package size is 6" x 12" x 1-1.5", depending on output dev...

•Further to Beatrice Robinson's posting about a small electronic locomotive, a similar device can be seen in The Organette Book, Fig. 575. This is called 'Go-Go Tunes' and plays an eight-note diatonic scale with the aid of press-in pegs placed into the holes in the track. Any simple melody can be pr...

•Belated Christmas Greetings to all. For many years I have used a device called a "FybRglass Eraser" (their spelling) for cleaning electrical contacts in pipe organs. It is a small plastic holder, approx. 4 inches long, containing a replaceable cartridge of bundled fiberglass filaments. As the fiber...

•>> [ Peter Neilson also writes, "The stolen picture has a curious >> [ device or squiggle appearing to sit on the carpet in the lower >> [ right-hand corner. It does not appear in Meekins' original." >> [ -- Robbie A few years ago the Wall Street Journal told of a minor dispute between two major US...

•Happy Memorial Day Weekend Everyone! It comes time for me to build another roll-to-electric device for a friend of mine who wants to play his rolls on a standard direct-electric pipe chest. So the conversion from rolls to electric is what he asked me for. I have built these in the past, but it's be...

•Hi All, I believe the best book ever written about building any sort of pneumatic device is Craig Brougher's "The Orchestrion Builder's Manual and Pneumatics Handbook". The 3-ring binder version is available at https://www.buysecure.com/playercare.reprints.html#craig For a complete explanation of t...

•MMDers, I received a welcome email from John Phillips pointing out a roll repair device that he had built and submitted to MMD 961218. The pictures can be located at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/jphillips1.html These pictures are worth revisiting and I wish I had seen this device before I built ...

•Mark, how about a thumb piano (kalimba) as the musical device? For one that is easy to build, take a look at http://www2.worldbook.com/features/cybercamp/html/craftthmb.html It uses thin plywood and scrap wood for the sound box and ice-cream sticks for the plucked tines. (Most kalimbas use metal st...

•-- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD -- I have made a device for my 8 and 10 year old daughters to enable them to play our piano without any music lessons. It is a wooden rack that holds a roll of paper about 36 inches wide. The wooden rack sits on the music rack and is removable. A...

•Since the 65-note Themodist rolls and tracker bars have no provision for an automatic sustaining pedal device, it is virtually certain this instrument never had one originally. The linkage described and partially shown suggests a manually-operated lever either missing or intentionally done away wit...

•Hi All, I thought I made it pretty clear that the device I'm rebuilding is an air motor (or wind motor). I have used a clothes iron to get stack pneumatics off when they were glued on with hot melt glue, but in such case I always make new bottom boards. And, fortunately, since the deck boards are t...

•Robbie remarked: > A universal motor (with brushes) as typically found in > a vacuum cleaner won't damage a lamp dimmer device. Whoops! The motor (with brushes) as typically found in a vacuum motor can't be harmed, but special controllers are required for speed control. They are now common at hardw...

•Hi all, I don't think that the Duo-Art tracking device is causing this problem as described earlier by D.L. Bullock. The bellows settle in rewind in the same position they would settle during play with both ears closed. If a roll with the paper knocked towards the slotted flange is place into piano...

•Mark Singleton asked about recording directly to a PC. Once you have a sound input device such as a microphone, fed into a suitable pre-amplifier or mixer, you can output this to a PC through a digitizer unit such as "Edirol" ( http://www.roland.com/PRODUCTS/en/UA-1X/ ) via a USB socket. The PC's s...

•Can any reader give me information on where to obtain one of the roll repair tables -- the device that allows unfurling a roll across a platform to perform repairs? Andy Ott andrewott@aol.com [ John Phillips' roll repair table is described and pictured at [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/Pictures/...

•Many years ago, I developed a floppy disk MIDI file player device. I think the device is called a "MIDI filer". Mike Ames supplied me with the manual to the Yamaha MDF3 MIDI Data Filer and wanted something that was functionally equivalent. I sold a bunch of these units five to seven years ago, and ...

•Rob Buckingham wrote in 2 Nov 2010 MMDigest: > Personally, I do not use any retaining device around my rolls. > When I am done playing one, I knock the paper to the right flange. I agree, I have never allowed any restraint near my rolls for over 40 years. I only tighten a roll prior to playing: tap...

•Hi All, Does anyone know who manufactured the Gulbransen "fishing pole" roll tracking device? After hours of searching, it appears that the device was not patented by Gulbransen. By the way, the supplement to the Gulbransen Shop Chart, which explains the operation of the device, is dated October 1...

•Hi All, My search for the patent for the tracking device used in the "Gulbransen" player piano continues. I was recently in contact with Paul Brennan, from Australia, and he provided me with an excellent picture of the Gulbransen transmission, which contains the majority of the parts with the excep...