65-note rolls
By Dan Wilson
Simon Harrison asks where 65-note player rolls can be found.
The answer is England, in huge quantity. They're a drug on the market. The 65n Pianola pushup was introduced in 1898 and no 88n pianos were made until 1907, so there were ten years of big importation from the USA and, after 1903 when the local branch of Aeolian, the Orchestrelle Co (named after the 58n organ) started cutting in London, local manufacture. 65-note pianos continued to be made until 1918 to suit existing roll collections and have survived because, being mostly Aeolian, were solidly made; the player actions are either fossilised or missing but the rolls are still in the loft. With wooden ends and antique boxes, they look as though they might be valuable to ignorant antique dealers so there are hundreds waiting for a new dawn which will never come. Roll dealers mostly hate them but there's just enough demand to protect them from destruction. If you're buying in unnamed lots rather than choosing titles, you can think in terms of 50p (75 US cents) each. By title, 2 to 3.50 ukp ($3 to $5.50).
The big minus about UK 65n rolls is that most of them are salon music appropriate to their era, so learn to like Chaminade and Moszkowski (not difficult). The plusses are: about half are provided with Themodist "snakebites" so a pretty good performance can be extracted if the player is well-adjusted; there is a lot of extremely rare classical music available; and manufacture continued right up to 1940, so although they're not common you can get 1930s foxtrots and ballads in 65n format.
Contacts:-
Steve Cox (dealer)
Laguna Rolls
Laguna
Lagoon Road
PAGHAM
West Sussex PO21 4TH ph/fax +44 1243 262041
Frances Broadway ("Roll Bid Enterprise" - postal auction)
39 Sydner Road (NB Sydner not Sydney)
Stoke Newington
LONDON
N16 7UF ph +44 171 254 6145
fax +44 171 249 0130 (dedicated line)
65n rolls are very cheap in the Player-Piano Group "Post Bid" auctions which are run about four times a year - but you have to be a member ! Membership Secretary is:-
Malcolm Billingsley
80 Montalt Road
WOODFORD GREEN
Essex IG8 9SS ph +44 181 505 1850
Another quite different use for 65n instruments is playing nickelodeon "A" roll recuts (cut in half to get them into the spoolbox) with the end 3 notes on the tracker bar taped over. Others in this list will be able to cite sources.
Dan Wilson (Friends of Pianola Institute, London)
dwilz@cix.compulink.co.uk |
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