Re: Aeolian Player Organ Question
By Jim Weisenborne
Dave,
The player unit which you described was the garden variety Aeolian 116-note semi-automatic player unit. Their Duo-Art unit had 176-holes and the earlier duo-art units could play both the 116-note rolls as well as the 176-note rolls.
No, this player cannot use the Hammond rolls. Those rolls are actually Skinner rolls. The Hammond (Skinner) tracker bar consists of a single row of holes, not a double row, staggered, as in the Aeolian. The rolls are not interchangeable. I believe the Skinner has 112 holes.
The Aeolian unit worked entirely from the air in the console. To say the least, their tracking scheme couldn't holda candle to Skinner's. Believe it or not, Aeolian issued about 1500 rolls! Sadly, their paper wasn't the best. Their rolls tend to tear easily, especially on rewind.
But what on earth do you plan to do with this unit? With the exception of Kimball and Moller, nobody else used the same width paper. Compared to player pianos, organ players were sold in such small quantities that it's difficult to find any rolls at a decent price, to say nothing about worrying whether you're going to be able to play these paper rolls in a few years. I ought to know. I own about 2700 organ rolls and as soon as my solid state organ relay is installed, I am transferring them to the computer.
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(Message sent Tue 24 Oct 1995, 14:58:01 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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