Re: Sock Drawer Valutes and Roll Velocities
By Robin Pratt
CONTRAPTIONS WERE NEVER MEANT TO BE VERY EXACT!!!!!!
###NOT TO BE TAKEN PERSONALLY BY ANYONE, PLEASE!###
OK guys, Come on now. ANY air motor if properly and conscienciously rebuilt will give beautiful, consistant and long term reliable service and results.
But the days of the jalopy player piano are OVER! Unlike in the '50's and '60's, you cannot just patch up these instruments which are now approx 70-80 years old each and expect them to function as new. Would you take an old car and put one new tire on it, or three spark plug wires cause the others "look still good to me."?
HOW'S THIS?
The crank shaft usually needs replating.
The (ALL of them) felt bushings need replacing, sizing and lubing.
The slide valves need to be lapped and trued and graphited.
Interior channels need sealing.
Pneumatic boards need sealing.
Cloth need replacing.
Chains need cleaning and lubing.
Transmissions need cleaning, truing and lubing.
Brake felts need replacing and lubing and tension set.
Get the picture??? You CANNOT expect superior results without like work. When an instrument operates on AIR (of all things!) cutting corners or "I'm sure that'll be O.K." thinking just won't do. You WILL pay the price. As my father used to say, "The LAZY man suffers the most pain." After restoring players, I KNOW the true meaning of that old saying!
BY the By, this is nothing personal gang. Just experiences I've had.
KBELLISON, QRS didn't save their old production stuff. The simple reason is that they weren't selling the stuff any longer. The songs were yesterday's mashed potatoes. They specialize in "Top 40" sales and really, it was only with the nostalgia craze that there was a demand for the old stuff. There was so much of the stuff produced that it wasn't necessary to keep the old space eating masters around. Had to heat the factory somehow. Much of the old numbers are now being saved by disc storage. It took 'em a while, but they're trying and it was only in the last several years that much of the really obscure stuff has managed to re-enter the catalogue through the help of collectors like Don Rand and others. Keep buying those rolls.
Regarding the "different" arrangements, this was VERY common practice.
J. Lawrence Cook usually "up-dated" the older roll recordings (job security?) to new "rhythm arrangements" . Common in the late '30's-'60's.
You'll see this start to appear on the Brown box pre-WWII labels. And you're right, they sound "Hollow". It was no longer "in style" to have that "Pete Wendling" bass. People didn't want that. They wanted Eddy Duchin style. Remember "Smooth Rhythm Arrangement"??? Get it? All for now.
Robin
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(Message sent Fri 16 Jun 1995, 03:18:56 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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