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MMD > Archives > May 1997 > 1997.05.08 > 06Prev  Next


Lauter-Humana
By Richard Vance

I must agree with all the favorable comments about the quality and
durability of the Lauter-Humana. In 1963 I worked on one at the home of a
co-worker; at that time the instrument must have been 45 - 50 years old, yet
only recovering the wind motor and tightening some screws was required to
make it play well.

This instrument had a feature I have never seen elsewhere. There was a small
block with a curved, gasketed face attached to a piece of tubing. When this
was pulled out of its socket, it was to be used to suck out the tracker-bar,
using the machine's own vacuum.

This action was very 'inefficiently' designed, with its million screws,
large number of parts, and hundreds of linear inches of gasketing, yet it
must be a pleasure to rebuild, for those who respect traditional methods and
have the patience. I would love to takle a full rebuild someday. This points
out the paradox that instruments that were designed to maximize
manufacturing efficiency are hard to fix. The best example is the
Guilbransen-Jenssen, perhaps the most elegant player design, from a
'production engineering' point of view, ever produced.


(Message sent Thu 8 May 1997, 10:24:40 GMT, from time zone GMT.)

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