•I have a remote pump for my upright Duo-Art piano installed under the house. It is in a steel box to protect it from mice and rats. The original pump was a steamboat and having rebuilt one of these, I was not thrilled about doing another. The under house pump can be almost anything as long as it ha...

•A truly outstanding book has been published and is now available for those of us who love musical clocks compounded by whimsy and somewhat outlandish trips of fancy to a world occupied by gnomes, provincial tradesmen, eagles, cuckoo birds, foxes, and other things that roam the woods and go bump in ...

•I have had a Maas Rowe carillon for a number of years. Originally it was driven with punched Mylar rolls, completely electro-magnetically. I converted it to MIDI control but never did much with it since then. I have recently resurrected the project and added a medium-power amplifier and a weatherpr...

•Just about every ad for a player piano includes this familiar, but incorrect, line: "Piano comes with 50 scrolls." Oh, really? First of all, a scroll has two spools, and has to be unwound from both ends, not one, like a player roll. Secondly, if they really were "scrolls", there would be no use for...

•In MMD 160920 Luke Myers was looking for someone who dares to play a roll backwards. Backwards is not the only way to change the direction; flipping left and right is the other one. So there are four (4) possible commutations. But why the hell I am telling this again?! Everything has happened befor...

•This is a good time to explain for newbies and oldies who may not have figured out everything about how player system valves work to go through this giving my terminology to answer John Tuttle's question. In player system valves there are several valve types and I will try to explain the terminolog...

•I have a Cable Euphona 'Reproducing Inner Player' piano. I have a large collection of rolls for it. I have had a problem with the automatic rewind not working most of the time and had to manually push the Temple control to zero (0) to get it to rewind. Recently I was informed that I should be playi...

•This is intended as a response to "Ragtime Pianist Hughe Woolford on Telektra Brass" as posted by David Krall in 231207 MMDigest. Hi David, The name Hughie Woolford sounded familiar to my ear and it took me awhile to recall where I had heard it. Eubie Blake mentions him as a competitor on the "Tric...

Yesterday, Robbie Rhodes wrote: > How can we play a Midi file of nifty band organ music > into a synthesizer and get the sound of a real, live WurliTzer 165 or > 92-key Ruth organ, or whatever? I've wondered if it would be possible to make a band organ patch. The soundcard on my PC is an Gravis Ultr...

Part of my mechanical music collection is a Wurlitzer Theatre Organ - a > small one, from 1928. It's pretty much original except that the > roll-playing mechanism was removed years ago, long before I acquired > it. And I can't play a note. What I want to do, and what has been > done to a number of ...

Has anyone out there ever considered or tried to "read" a music box disc using any of the midi programs? I would love to get some input on how to do something like this -- Optical reading? Using the starwheel gantry to trip switches that would record/play a note? How to program for multiple tracks p...

[ Douglas also sent a nice farewell to Wally Rose, which is extracted [ here from a longer letter he sent to me today. -- Robbie Did I tell you that Wally remembered a 'salute' to Elsie Janis as she went through the Panama Canal on the Grace Line, where he was a pianist on board in the early '30s? ...

It looks as though I may be acquiring a basket case Berry-Wood Auto Orchestra; judging from the photos, it looks like a Style A.O.W. I understand that the late Charles Smallwood had some Berry-Wood parts that were dispersed in his estate sale. Does anyone know about (a) parts, particularly a coin me...

I agree with Doug Henderson's assessment of a Duo-Art mechanism in a Steinway DR concert grand in principle. The D/A mechanism was basically designed for parlor performances of the classics. The rolls were likewise coded as well. The pump was designed to slip its belt at high pressures, acting exact...

•Mr. Finch has a great idea! I have often fantasized about a modern Fairground/Street/Dance/Band organ, properly configured to correctly play original books, rolls or drums from old sources, as well as modern works transcribed electronically. The suggested specs all are good ideas. First and foremos...

•Darrell Clarke was wondering about a test roll for his Apollo Art-Echo. You may be happy to know that you don't need one. It adjusts like an Ampico (kind of), so with a GOOD gauge (not a Marshalltown) and lots of patience, you will be able to get it right. I restored one of the pianos years ago, an...

•Julian Dyer's comments a few days ago on MMD got me to thinking a bit on the accuracy of copying paper rolls. Specifically, he said that "[copies] were always 'synchronous' -- cut in a punch-advance-punch manner. New rolls to date have pretty well all been non-synchronous copies..." Punches are alw...

•Since there has been a lot of discussion about automatic trackers, so I thought I'd throw in my two cents for what its worth. I really think the old Baldwin tracker is one of the best made. If it's adjusted right the floating triangle in these will work on any variations of roll, without having to ...

•My country (The Netherlands) was never under a Communist regime and the last four decades there was no food problem. Helas [alas?] we are exposed to a lot of films and TV series from a.o. the US. But the reaction of the average Netherlands citizen would be the same as your Russian friend. Player-pi...

•Sorry for late response here -- a mouse (warm furry type) ate off an inch of my modem cord ! [ You must set out more food! ;) -- Robbie Robbie said [in MMD 990108]: [ D. L. Bullock was speaking about the player piano, with the [ mechanism built inside, and this was pretty rare in the Gay [ Nineties...