•Both U.S.-made and U.K.-made Duo-Arts were distributed and well represented in Australia. The Aeolian factory in Melbourne (only recently demolished) produced pianos, including Steck -- I have seen at least one locally made Half Duo-Art. The other significant Melbourne factories producing players w...

•Several of my Britannia musical box discs are _very_ rusty. Having cleaned them, I wonder what is the recommended varnish or lacquer to treat them with. I would be most grateful for your advice. Apologies if this subject has been covered before; I am new to this world! David Hunt [ Ralph Schultz re...

•For sale: 27-inch Orchestral Regina No. 5 disc musical box, visually and tonally impressive, 84" tall floor model (see Bowers' Encyclopedia, page 201), with paired upper doors, three rondells, and forward tilting storage door below, dual comb (perfect), coin-operated, oak, comprehensive mechanical ...

•There were some Auto-typists that used "nickelodeon" size rolls. Does anyone know if the Auto-typist used a standard 11-1/4" roll? Did they use six to the inch perforations? Paul Manganaro [ At http://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters_office_special.htm : [ "The Auto-Typist, which was introduced in ...

•Hello from occasionally sunny Seattle! I found the recent postings about the Auto-Typist to be of interest for two reasons. The first is that when I was in my early teens in Chicago in the 1970s, I rode the bus (and occasionally cajoled a ride from my parents) around the city looking for forgotten ...

•Hi Folks, A couple weeks ago I sent in a request to contact someone who had access to a 20-3/4" Regina, upright, single-play, disc music box that was coin operated [150323 MMDigest]. I needed some pictures so that I could replace my coin-op parts. Well, I was most pleased to receive e-mails from ab...

•Band organs, coin pianos, calliope, music rolls at auction I came across this advertisement for what appears to be a great auction. It may be viewed at http://www.kruesel.com/ I thought this may be of interest to the MMD. Tom Born - - - Antiques & Music Machines Auction 9:00 a.m., Saturday, October...

•[ Luke Myers wrote in 151124 MMD -- > I am a big fan of the pneumatic players and I am currently > rebuilding a 1910 Werner Auto-Player that a friendly couple donated > to my family. The current issues with it are the pump unit and the > wind motor. Luke, your piano description brings both good new...

•Alert! This Saturday, Dec. 19th, starting at 5 p.m. Central Time, there will be a holiday show on Minneapolis Public Radio. Tune in "A Prairie Home Companion" (the Garrison Keillor radio show) on National Public Radio (NPR) and, among other guests, listen to Ralph Schultz and some other MBSI member...

•Hi Everyone! A few years ago I was approached by KCHK radio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, about doing a spot featuring mechanical music. Well, that's quite a drive from New York, so I suggested they contact my friend, Ralph Schultz, who lived close by and I believed would be happy to help them. It wor...

•[ Ref. Jim Spriggs in 200301 MMDigest ] Hello Jim, These signatures are often a bit of a scrawl, but this particular roll was 'signed' by the somewhat un-famous William Schmidt. He may possibly have been an American pianist but I am only guessing. I happen to know this roll; the piece is slightly m...

•I am wanting to purchase a G roll with the tune "Lili Marleen" on it. Thank you, Larry Reece [ "Nazi leaders considered the song overly sentimental and banned [ it, but soldiers -- German and their British opponents alike -- [ loved it, and the anthem spread through barracks, hospitals and [ bunker...

•On behalf of a customer (a museum) we are looking for this piano roll: J. Strauss 'Seid umschlungen Millionen' Waltz Op 443. It had been published as Hupfeld Animatic 88 note No 54648, but maybe also as S.M.[*] or other. We are looking for this title to buy or lend to scan and produce new copies. M...

•[ Ref. Bob Yoder in 180810 MMdigest: [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/201808/2018.08.10.02.html [ "The most noticeable thing is that the rolls are 29.8 cm (11.75") [ wide. Even setting the roller bar at maximum, it doesn't fit at all!" In case the question persists: The roll is a music r...

Here's Claus Kucher's reply to my first message to him. Jody asked that we CC: the group, and what appears below may be of general interest. > > Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 23:30:24 +0200 > To: rhodes@foxtail.com (Robbie Rhodes) > From: dick@via.at (Claus Kucher) > Subject: Hallo aus Wien (very cold and r...

Greetings, all. I've been reading the digest since June 1, but have not posted before. My interests run more toward pipe organs, theater organs especially, but have found your discussions enlightening. My father was a registered piano tuner and rebuilt countless (non-player), mostly grand pianos. I ...

Marc's query as to known subscribers struck me as an interesting question. Marc's last posting was less than 3 weeks ago. For fun I tried pulling the names from the digest index. Doing this brought up two problems: 1) there are some postings that were forwarded, so a few of the names below are NOT s...

•Answering Doug Rhodes (and others) regarding the migration of silicone: There are tens of thousands of silicones, Doug. To say that silicone does this and that is like saying that alcohol has this and that property, or that all benzines do thus and so. You cannot start making assumptions based upon...

While surfing the web today, I came across a ragtime composition contest in which the grand prize is an upright Yamaha Disklavier. It appears that the rag must be composed using a special software package called "Crazy for Ragtime". I do not know what the capabilities of this software are; I have a ...

I've been perusing this digest for some time now and feel it is time to introduce myself. I'm a member of the PTG and have specialized in restoring players for over 25 years. I have a data base of over 1100, ranging from ones I've only made estimates on, to major restorations. I use PVC-e on nylon c...