Nelson-Wiggen Nickelodeons
By Don Teach
Trust me. The first thing I did was E-mail those who mentioned a nickelodeon for sale.
I think my neighbors, who I have yet to impose on, may have space in their garage for me to start storing more pianos, if they start parking their car outside. I have friends I have yet to use and a thirst for pianos that will not stop (but only a beer budget). My doctor says not to worry as this collecting disease is not that harmful. My orthopedist, however, disagrees.
[ I've played lots of Beer Pianos -- the more beer I drink,
[ the better they sound! -- Robbie
A Nelson-Wiggen style 5 was mentioned in MMD 960228, and S. K. Goodman (I am really not picking on this guy) replied 960630. A Nelson-Wiggen style 5 would be a very rare machine. I have never seen one in person and only heard of two. It would be the equal of a KT Special by Seeburg in my opinion. If fact I think it would be better. The Nelson-Wiggen style 5 would offer the advantage of pipes thus using all the functions of a G or 4X roll.
I wonder too, about a N-W value of $11,000. I have been interested in buying a 5X or 4X and would rather pay $7000 for an unrestored one that is complete. There was an ad for a 5X I responded to and was told that this dealer had just sold one for $11,000. It was suppose to play weakly.
[ Yeah, some Beer Pianists play weekly, too! ]
I have three Nelson-Wiggen instruments in my collection. One of them looks like a style 8 on the outside but has only a xylophone across the front. It is the reiterating type and actually sounds good. It plays the A-roll which is still one of my favorite American roll formats. My other favorite is the Link roll.
I also have a Nelson-Wiggen style 6 from the Haning and White collection. It the same instrumentation as a Seeburg KT special or Seeburg E Special. It has piano, mandolin, snare drum, bass drum, triangle, castanets,and wood block. The xylophone has a pnuematic that moves the beaters closer to the xylophone bars on command from the soft pedal perforation in the roll. Since this machine, as does the Seeburg, has more instruments than holes in the roll, it multiplexes. The N-W has two shifters in it to multiplex with, whereas Seeburg has one. The first shifter is operated from the soft hole and the second shifter works with the xylophone.
I also have a Nelson-Wiggen style 8 with bells and xylophone. The reason I want a 5X is because many of these had resonators on the xylophone. Some had Deagan xylophones and others had a xylophone with longer and narrower bars made by Liberty (Kohler-Liefbich Co). There were different suppliers of xylophones and perhaps N-W would just take the lowest bid.
I believe there would be more interest in nickelodeons if more people were exposed to nicely restored ones or ones that just played well. A good playing A-roll piano offers limited expression with the soft pedal and mandoline effect. The last time I was at Knotts Berry Farm all the music machines needed work (especially tuning). There is a Miner Calliope here at a local casino that sounds awful. I have recently made contact with them to tune it.
In Digest 970115 I see that Robbie is learning about the Link roll. Please don't cut one to change tunes. I wish someone would transcribe some Link RX rolls into A rolls, or Wurlitzer rolls into A rolls or G rolls. I think Don Rand may have issued some of the coin piano rolls as 88-note rolls once. Close, but not a winner.
I also have question. Robbie and Jody seem to have a lot of knowledge. Who are you? Are you restorers?
Also: Rob Deland, please contact me. I want some rolls.
Don Teach
1610 E. Bert Kouns
Shreveport, LA. 71105
[ Editors note:
[
[ Jody is a computer systems engineer and programmer. He owns a
[ Yamaha C7 grand awaiting installation of a solenoid player.
[
[ Robbie is a design engineer and music arranger. He owns a Weber
[ Ampico B grand and two Themodist pumpers.
[
[ Both wisely hire professionals to do restorations and explain the
[ old mechanisms and techniques. ;)
[ Somewhere I heard good tape recordings of the Lyle Martin Link RX
[ project, which I believe resulted in a set of extremely expressive
[ music rolls. The recordings were made on the Link piano now owned
[ by Don Rand. Does anyone know the story of Martin and his project?
[ The music arrangements are very distinctive, almost pensive, and
[ quite different from the "typical" nickelodeon sound.
[
[ -- Robbie |
(Message sent Thu 16 Jan 1997, 22:35:03 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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