•Scotty Greene asks about tuning a xylophone. I've had really great results with the xylophones I've made by double tuning them. Most people don't realize that you can tune not only the fundamental tone but also the overtones. This is one area that separates xylophones from marimbas. The first overt...

•[ David Greene wrote in 121124 MMDigest: > I have three goals for this project: > - Allow computer-controlled playback via MIDI files or similar; > - Provide accurate electronic recording; > - Create new rolls from digital/MIDI sources. After reading David Greene's post in MMD 121124, I tried to fo...

•David Greene asks about the Ampico "B" reroll brake. He says, "I can imagine the brake might be hard on old rolls." "Hard on old rolls" is an understatement -- using the rewind brake will destroy old rolls! I'm sure this is the reason it was found disconnected. The shaft of the take-up spool must s...

•[ Scotty Greene wrote in 130225 MMDigest: > The DeBence Museum has a Muzelle nickelodeon [with a] stained > glass upper front #1025 dated 6/29/91 made by Dorothy Kemp which > was copyrighted in 1990. This would have been Music World, a now-defunct Las Vegas music retailer originally owned by Don an...

•[ Scotty Greene wrote in 130705 MMDigest: > ... can I get away with adding external stiffeners, or do I have > to remove the motor cloth and put the stiffeners inside, as they > are on a pressure pump? Scotty, the correct thing to do is to put stiffeners in the pump. I don't see them very often on ...

•Scotty Greene said, "... and moreover the metal pipes were all tuned as sharp as they would go with the slides all against their stops, which makes me think it was tuned too high even before we boosted it [the piano] up to A=440." Upon reading this, the first thing I thought of was that Coinola was...

•Scotty Greene asked about the shift in pitch in pianos and organs which occurs with a temperature change. In pianos, the effect is transient: with cooling temperature, the strings contract in length raising their pitch. The amount of pitch change is different throughout the piano, with the largest ...

•Scotty Greene of DeBence Museum in Franklin, Pennsylvania, asks about the effects of temperature on tuning. As a tuner for many years, I can tell you organ pipes are much more sensitive to temperature than pianos. The biggest culprit is the percentage of relative humidity. The artificial heat of wi...

•Scotty Greene asked for the tune list of Wurlitzer Caliola Roll 6117. These are the tunes: 1. Val Cartier 2. College Life 3. Rose 4. Shoulder Arms 5. Fight Is On 6. Fight Away This "all march roll" was made by Wurlitzer's roll arranging and production successor, TRT Manufacturing Co., in about 1952...

•[ Scotty Greene wrote in 150331 MMDigest -- > I found the valve stems were glued very thoroughly to the pouches, > ... what is good practice in this connection? The Cremona valve stem is screwed into a fibre disc and is usually not glued. Don Teach Shreveport, Louisiana

•[ Scotty Greene wrote in 160109 MMDigest: > There is a responsibility, as museum tour guides, to educate the > public and kill crazy stories with real facts. I've come across two instances of docents telling people mega- exaggerated values on instruments. 1. In Proctor, Vermont, is a brick Victoria...

•Scotty Greene is straight on correct -- misunderstanding the manufacturer's concepts is practically a given all too frequently. Undoubtedly bad valves, or too tight pouches, are in the Steger player action that's been discussed over the past week or so. So far as materials go, I have a 1920 Steinwa...

•[ Scotty Greene wrote to Matt Jaro and me: > There was an ad on eBay for roll 469, "Rag Review", but the actual > photo showed a Ray Siou roll #1090. That fits, as all the songs on > this roll sound like rags to me. Hi Robbie, I sent an email to Scotty Greene. I think the roll is Cremona 469S -- as...

•[ Scotty Greene wrote in 160623 MMDigest -- > We can recognize a few tunes on each roll. In a few cases there > is a number at the inner end of the roll. Scotty, I have a rollography data base for style "A", "G", "4X", "H" and "O" rolls. I will be glad to give you a copy. However, you do need Micro...

•Scotty Greene made some good points about dispersing a collection to other private collectors or even some "museums". I recently learned that many small museums formed as non-profit 501c3 organizations are not completely safe as a place to donate your collection. In forming the not-for-profit statu...

•[ Scotty Greene wrote in 170401 MMDigest -- > Does anyone have experience treating motor cloth on pneumatics > using the vinyl/rubber sprays used on car interiors -- either > to try to restore older airtight but slightly stiff pneumatics, > or as a life extender on new jobs? I have tried a product ...

•Scotty Greene inquires about "string driven tracking mechanisms". These are frequently called "fishing line trackers" with good reason: that's the best material to replace a broken or missing original with. However, _avoid_ "monofilament" type line which is typically a plastic of some formulation a...

•[ Scotty Greene wrote in 191217 MMDigest: > Is the actuation [control] lock and cancel? Hole #1 on the Style > 153 tracker bar is "Swell Shades Open". How do they get closed? I believe Scotty Greene is right in thinking that the swell shades control on a Wurlitzer 153 band organ is a lock-and-cance...

•Scotty Greene asks in the 20.02..02 MMD for help in determining the age of the Wurlitzer 153 band organ in the DeBence collection. He says that it has a "player piano style air chest," not the unit block action that is usually found in Wurlitzer band organs. Judging from that, I would say that the ...

•Scotty Greene of DeBence Antique Music World in Franklin, Pennsylvania, wrote in the 200207 MMD: "From a phone call I learned that the DeBence [Wurlitzer] 153 was owned by the... [Gooding Amusement Co. of Columbus, Ohio] before it went to Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio, in a trade for the German or...