Hi Gary!  Saw your letter concerning your desire to build a music box.

Re: the case: While I don't think there is anything 'written' on the
actual construction of the case, common sense doth prevail!  If you are
building a larger-than-the- mechanism box (say a jewelry box with a mech.
inside) be sure the design includes an encasement for the mechanism.
This will give optimum sound.

Tight corners and bottom are a must.  Take a cue from the antique
cylinder boxes and be sure to have some sort of lid  (glass or wood)
to cover the space which encloses  the mechanism.  This will create a
'sound chamber' and allow the sound waves to bounce around more without
dissipating.  Hardwoods are always better than softwoods.

The antique boxes had their bedplates (the plate to which all the pieces
of the mechanism are screwed) raised a bit off the bottom of the case, by
a piece of wood on either side of the mechanism.  The mechanism was
screwed to the pieces of wood, which were glued to the bottom of the
case.  This also, supposedly, added to the resonance.   In the more
modern walnut-cased musical boxes, the mechanisms are screwed directly to
the bottom of the case.   I prefer the method used in the antique boxes.

Re the movement:  You don't have a lot of choices here, depending upon
just what you want to spend.  The leader in cylinder box movements is
Reuge from Switzerland.   The better of the Reuge boxes are, naturally,
the larger ones.  All their movements are excellent quality, but the
larger the movement, the better the arrangements of the tunes and the
more of the 'complete' tune you'll get.

My suggestion would be the 3/50 or 3/72 note movements.  The numbers
designate the number of tunes and the number of teeth on the
mechanism, i.e., a 3/72 note movement plays 3 tunes and has 72 teeth in
the comb.  The size of the 3/72 bedplate is approx.  3" x 7".   The 3/72
is the largest movement that Reuge will sell without a case.  There are
about 50 different tune selections in the 3/72.  Prices: 3/50 = $315.00;
3/72 = $425.00 + postage.

I can obtain any Reuge product -- I am a Reuge dealer -- and I can send
you a list of the titles if this route is of interest to you.   Because
of the large variety of titles, I do not stock new musical boxes;
delivery time can be anywhere from 10 days to 3 months, depending upon
if the title you choose is in stock at the US warehouse.

There is another route you can go also: to a disc box.  There is, from
Reuge also, a 4.5" (the diameter of the disc) Romance movement.  This is
the same mechanism as the older 4.5" Thorens disc boxes.  (Reuge bought
out Thorens and kept the design.)  These mechanisms retail for $265.00.
Then you'd have to purchase discs, as many or as few as you wanted, at
$9.50 each.

A word about the Romance/Thorens movements:  For some unknown reason,
when Reuge started making new discs for these movements, they changed the
position of the disc projections just a tad.  The end result was that you
can play old discs on older movements; you can play new discs on new
movements; but you might run into trouble playing old discs on new
movements and vis-a-versa.  There is a 'fix' for this: to move the star
wheel gantry a tad to reach a happy 'medium'.   It is something that most
people are not aware of, but should be told.

There is one other route I can think of: Sankyo puts out a line of 2/50
and 3/50 note movements.  The sound is excellent, but the tune selection
is very limited, only about 5 different selections.  They sound
excellent and are priced at about $275.  Currently the only place I know
of to get them is from a company called Klockit; a mail order catalog
for people who want to build clocks from kits.

I am toying with the idea of becoming a Sankyo dealer too, but there is
no stocking warehouse here in the States so that means all shipments
would have to come directly from Japan.  That could be time consuming.
Restocking an out-of-stock tune would also be restrictive because of
their minimum order requirements too.  So, for now, that's not in the
immediate future.

If I can be of further help, please let me know!

Nancy Fratti, PO BOX 210, Whitehall, NY 12887-0210 ; 518-282-9770
MusicBoxLady@Juno.com     http://www.quikpages.com/P/musicbox