Re: Soloelle rolls
By Erik Siverson
I recall seeing an unrestored Soloelle system piano. The instrument was a Knabe upright made in the 1920's. I was expecting it to be an Ampico but it was more like a standard player. The Soloelle mechanism was an expression device built into the hammer rest rail.
The rail was cut into approximately ten sections. Each section was hinged independently to pivot foreward toward the strings to reduce the blow distance. Pneumatics were connected by a system of cords and pulleys to each section of hammer rest rail. I assume that the Soloelle code in the rolls would specify certain sections of hammers to pivot forward at specific times to soften the blow, and thus give dynamic variety in different pitch ranges to a song.
During hand playing of the piano, the hammer rest rail moved all the sections in unison toward or away from the strings in the normal fashion.
Since Knabe was an Ampico product, and as Mike states--"These rolls would play on my Ampico with rather limited expression."-- could this perhaps be a poor-man's reproducing system that was Ampico compatible?
The instrument belongs to a family friend in Stockton, California. If there is enough interest, I could probably get photographs of the mechanism.
--Erik Siverson--
|
(Message sent Sun 19 May 1996, 06:49:47 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
|
|
Mechanical
Music Digest™ Archives
