•Craig and MMDrs: For those of us of the 'theatre organ persuasion', the Chrysoglott is well known. Invented in the late 19th century (I think by Robert Hope-Jones), it was named by combining the Greek and German words for 'Golden Voice'. Any theatre organ with any pretensions of completeness had at...

•I found some information about the marimba on the Internet. http://www.marimba.org/ "Marimba, which was improved in South America was brought to the United States eventually, and they started to make marimba around 1910. Deagan of Chicago changed the wooden pipe to the metal pipe. Numerous other im...

•As a professional percussionist, I can tell you that when percussionists talk about a marimba that is bought, sold and made today, they are basically talking about an instrument of range anywhere from 3 to 5 chromatic octaves (4 is most common, but the new trend is going down towards 5 octaves), wi...

•Although I have been building small organs and making pipes as an amateur for many years, until now I have fought shy of making a trumpet rank. Now, with some guidance from Marc Elbasani's excellent description published via MMD, I have partially completed a 25-note rank of trumpets, spanning two o...

•Hal Davis reported: > For those of you who would like to hear a pipe organ being played by > Wurlitzer series 165 band organ rolls you can download these files. Please enlighten me. I'm only an ignorant Englishman, but if a Wurlitzer 165 isn't a pipe organ, just exactly what is it? Regards, John Pa...

•Charles D. Lightfoote wrote, "Can anyone help me find some graphic or tabular representation of the effect of heat and humidity on pitch as it relates to pipe organ tuning?" If memory serves, the usual compensation is 6 cents per 1 degree Fahrenheit of change. Applied to the fairground organ (raise...

•Last month, a discussion about the mysterious Mason & Hamlin tension resonator was in several issues of the MMD. Jeffrey Wood shared his vast experience and fairly well put the cap on that discussion (MMDs 060316 & 060317). When I was first learning about pianos early in my career, I was told by on...

•Nigel Perry asks whether it is possible to make trumpet pipes with harmonium reeds. A harmonium reed is a free reed, that is, the reed vibrates within its metal frame without touching it. Similar types of reeds are used in American organs and organettes. The main difference is that harmoniums blow ...

•Some Welte orchestrions used a rank of free reed trumpet pipes. Those reeds were made of steel. They could be tuned with a tuning wire like free reed clarinets. There was a brass plate for the shallot face, and the steel reed was ground into a T-shape held in place with a screw and locating pins. T...

•Should anyone have the need for a comb to be tuned for a disc musical box, my daughter, Daisy Singleton, successfully mastered this art some time ago, and she has now brought many machines back to life. Between us we can offer a complete re-leading of the resonators and tuning. We are also happy to...

•Dear Ben and group, The Deagan Una-Fon was a popular hand-played unit having reiterating electromagnets with beaters that played specially-shaped orchestra bell bars, with a cable going to a small keyboard. Una-Fon bell bars, in contrast to other types of orchestra bells, have a unique shape with c...

•I have worked with brass trumpets, including North Tonawanda. The overall nominal tuning of the organ -- the violins and open flutes, in particular -- is the baseline for where the trumpets need to be tuned. A set of brass has some half-length resonators, and it is imperative to get correct resonat...

•Dear Bruce et al: On some pipe organ reed pipes, the voicer will add weights to some of the brass tongues. On smaller pipes it's usually done with a little blob of solder. On larger pipes they'll use cast brass or lead weights that are screwed onto the reed. In the case of your Aeolian Free Reed Cl...

•Howard Sanford asks how to mute or muffle trombones on a 101-key Mortier [161025 MMDigest]. These are inherently loud so the easiest way is to mute them by locating the outlet from the register box and pull out the trombone tube. The outlet can then be blocked by a small cork to prevent unwanted wa...

•[ Ref. Christian Tedesco in 210114 MMDigest ] Mr. Tedesco's post was fascinating (although to my ears the saxophone sound in the first video was awful!). But the "reed box" idea reminded me that some pipe organ builders (particularly Wicks, but there were others) used a reed box in smaller instrume...

...And another PCS _________________________ Forward Header _____________________________¶ Subject: Re: Music Boxes¶ Author: tony@goodwin.demon.co.uk at CCGTWINT¶ Date: 11/6/95 9:03 PM Gentlemen, Having just heard Alan Heldman eulogise at some length apropos the talents of Mr Losch I will proceed wi...

[ Editor's Note: The message which follows appears to be a forward [ from the Pipe Organ mailing list... From: "RICHARD J. WEISENBERGER" ¶ Through: piporg-l@smtibm.albany.com¶ Subject: Tonal Aspects NOT Captured by Digital Sampling Although I maintain that the general public could be fooled by someo...

I have another rather obscure bit of Deagan information. An MBSI member in the Southeast owns a fine sounding machine billed as "the World's Only Piano-Vibraharp." Quoting from the insert in a tape of this machine: "The Deagan Piano-Vibraharp is neither a piano nor a vibraharp. Named by its inventor...

Trust me. The first thing I did was E-mail those who mentioned a nickelodeon for sale. I think my neighbors, who I have yet to impose on, may have space in their garage for me to start storing more pianos, if they start parking their car outside. I have friends I have yet to use and a thirst for pia...

•Whew! I just got in this morning (4:30 am) from the Miles Extravaganza. You people are ANIMALS!! Just kidding. But seriously folks! The bidding was fast and furious. There were lots of bargains, lots of reasonable retail prices and lots of reasonable wholesale prices. But there were also those pric...