Four-system Vorsetzer
By Tom Steuer
I am very excited to be involved universally in this group -- having received responses from Japan and England on two related items, and if I may, I'd like to respond to each using this network. The information -- both ways -- might be interesting to others as well.
First to Megumi Imai of Japan who responded to my question about other Duo-Art Vorsetzers. He said he had worked on the Duo-Art Vorsetzer that Mel Shores built in 1965 for the Tushinsky family. I believe the one he worked on formerly (or possibly even today) was or is owned by Kio Morita (am not sure I have the name exactly right), former chairman of Sony corporation in Tokyo. Megumi, was that unit a Duo-Art, or the four-system unit? Do you know where it is today?
The Tushinsky piano roll collection and most of the instruments, including my four-system Vorsetzer, were sold at auction about six weeks ago in Los Angeles. This includes the Boesendorfer Imperial Grand with the extra notes and the four-system Vorsetzer that I purchased.
And to Daniel Wilson in England: the four-system Vorsetzer is a large push-up cabinet player -- a black box on short legs-- approximately 40" high, 50" wide and 28" deep; it has two robot feet for the pedals, and 80 fingers. It was built in Los Angeles for Joe Tushinsky in 1972 by Jim Miller, and for the next six or so years, according to Miller, Tushinsky had Miller continue to upgrade and improve the instrument.
In contrast to my Duo-Art Vorsetzer built for the Tushinskys in 1965 by Mel Shores, this unit plays Ampico rolls, Duo-Art rolls, Welte Mignon (11-1/4") rolls, and Welte T-100 red label rolls. There are two tracker bars, one for the Welte red label rolls and the other for the other three systems. The Welte red label and Welte Mignon tracker bars are teed together. The operator tapes off (with Scotch tape) either the red label or the standard tracker bar, enabling the use of the other tracker bar. To switch from Welte to Duo-Art or to Ampico, the operator uses a knob, which activates that one system.
My Duo-Art Vorsetzer is about the same size as the four-system Vorsetzer but the cabinets are a little different. the Duo-Art goes down to the floor and is on casters, so that I can push it to the piano or away, against the wall. The four-system (Ampi-Art Mignon) Vorsetzer is on tapered legs, similar to piano legs, also on casters. The Duo-Art has an enclosed box vacuum in the bottom and the four-system is hooked up to a remote vacuum source -- no room inside for a vacuum.
The four-system is probably 200 pounds or so, probably 50-75 pounds heavier than the Duo-Art unit. All of the components for the three different systems (keeping in mind the Welte Mignon and Welte red label are the same system) are contained. The finger pneumatic stack is made up of a double row of pneumatics, and there are primary and secondary valves for the stack pneumatics.
Because the split in the stack is different for Ampico, Duo-Art, and Welte, a careful arrangement was made to accommodate this difference. In both the Duo-Art and the four-system Vorsetzers, the roll is driven by a speed-controlled electric motor connected to the gear box.
The four-system Vorsetzer is probably the very height of sophistication of player piano technology and incorporates a number of interesting ideas that were not used during the 1904-1941 reproducing player piano era.
For further information, I can be reached directly at tsteuer@jovanet.com. Best regards and Happy Easter,
Tom Steuer
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(Message sent Sun 30 Mar 1997, 00:38:52 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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