Response to my survey was limited but I do thank those that sent in their
information.

Very few pre-1910 Seeburgs are known.  These early pianos had stacks with
adjustable bleeds and a very early coin mechanism with a notched vertical
accumulator ratchet bar.

1910 or 1911 -- The fence post accumulator with the two opposing
pneumatics that step themselves around a semicircular row of pins appears
to have made a debut.

1914 -- The standard coin accumulator in a cast iron housing is now seen.
The cast iron housing was replaced by a sheet metal housing in the late
teens or early twenties.  In the early 1920's a paper sticker is found on
this sheet metal housing with two patent dates and a serial number.  The
patents belonged to Mills Novelty Co. who apparently was paid a royalty
for its use.

1923 -- The box type pump in the L cabinet and K-KT was used replacing
the earlier pump known in this area as the alligator pump.  Late 1923 the
oldest KT special 157 529 was made in a KT cabinet with eagle glass.
There are two known to me.  Do you know of any?

1924 -- The oldest known Western Electric piano.

1925 -- The new Style KT special cabinet.

We once thought that the serial number alone would date a Seeburg piano.
This is not true.  The number's in the 50,000 range were used twice.
These numbers were used in 1913 and again in the early 1920's.  Seeburg
used several different vendors for their pianos.  Haddorff was not the
only vendor.  The 50,000 numbers were Haddorff pianos originally until
Seeburg used Gram piano to make pianos for them.

Seeburg kept track of all the serial numbers to keep strict control on
their dealers.  These numbers were destroyed in the 1950's with the
passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Thank you, Uncle Sam.  Since the
numbers were starting to overlap previous number's they added a 1 to
these numbers starting with 55,000 now making it 155,000.  Hence the big
gap in the numbers known.

There have been no Seeburgs found with numbers in the 100,000 to 150,000
range.  In many Seeburg's there is a number stamped on the bottom of the
hammers.  This is a date and so far has been the only real clue as to
when different Seeburgs were made.

Some of the known vendors of pianos were Haddorff, Seybold, Edmund Gram,
and Marshall piano companies.  J. P. Seeburg founded the Marshall piano
company when he sold the coin piano co. in 1919.  His only son was named
Marshall.  He repurchased the coin piano co. a year later.  You would
think that from this point on all pianos would then be Marshall pianos.

A Seeburg E with flute pipes is number 54,090 and on the bottom of the
hammers is "JUN 1, 1922."  A 1913 Seeburg would also have a 50,000 number
but would have been made by Haddorff and would have likely  had a fence
post accumulator.  So with the confusing serial numbers it is best to
date a piano by the serial number with some caution.

The K and KT used at least two different manufacturers. One of them has
the mandolin rail held together with a u shaped bar to go around a strut
on the plate.  There have been several of these found that the Seeburg
name is an overlay that comes off with screws and under the Seeburg name
is Automatic Music Co. better known as Link Piano Co.  The other one has
the mandolin rail made in one straight piece of wood.

I would guess without knowing more details about the three pianos
mentioned in the Digest that number 31,655 is around 1910 and has a two
piece plate with open face pin block area.  If the plate has not been
repainted it is black on the lower part.  If this is the case then the
Haddorff serial numbers in the Atlas are correct for this piano.  Number
55479 was the Seeburg K mentioned and is also more likely than not a
Haddorff piano with the mandolin rail split by that u shaped piece, and
would have been made around 1913.

Number 79,062 fits the 1918 numbering system for Haddorff also.

If anyone that owns a Seeburg would like to send me a picture and any
more information such as a stack number, motor name and number,
accumulator style, location of knobs, die stamped serial number in
pinblock or rubber stamped, and description of the plate such as clover
leaf holes or open pinblock or three up three down tuning pin locations
or any other information I would appreciate it.

Currently there are about 400 Seeburg pianos we know serial numbers of
and little details.  We think that Seeburg could have made as many as
23,000 pianos including the Western Electric.  So far almost 3 percent of
them have survived.  Not very good.  This is unfortunately a "throw away
our heritage" society.

By the way if all this seems a bit confusing -- it is.

Don Teach
Shreveport Music Co
1610 E. Bert Kouns
Shreveport,  LA  71105