Ed, what you have is an "edit-master", something like the 1929 British
roll I took to my presentation at the Piano Technicians Guild in
Hartford CT on 3-18-98.  Electrical tape, gummed labels, cellophane
library tape and other things were used for fixing up the rolls.
Usually, a factory ran a handful of rough-cut copies made, and then the
staff artisans used pen knives and hand punches to add/subtract
expression, pedal and notes.  Since plastic tape didn't exist, they
could toss out a roll that got arranged in the wrong direction, and
grab another rough-cut roll, should expression or note elongation have
gotten out of hand.)

In the case of my example, the pianist (or 'recording' machine) had
skipped a beat, so hand-cut notes -- a whole cadenza -- were pen-knifed
into the Master, and the 'artist' notes were pasted over, as in your
Ampico example.  These mathematically arranged and hand-cut notes were
advanced from the sloppy 'recorded' ones, since cutting the paper was
difficult in that time.

(By contrast, I can add 1/2" strips into QRS Rolls that had glitches
due to MIDI scanning, or whatever, from old "Hi Babbit" Masters; one of
these titles -- Ten Cents a Dance -- was on exhibit at the PTG
presentation I just gave, showing -- if anything -- that there are
problems with electronics also!  Naturally, I perforated notes to
extend the chords, when not cutting out a 'stalled' part of the
arrangement.  Several rolls were brought to my Maine Studio by Michael
Potash, who recently purchased these erratic selections , arrangements
which would have been smooth in the pneumatic reading days at QRS!)

A rule of thumb was this: make the demonstration roll (often based on
the commercial release) exciting , and the one for the stores muted and
boring, so that it would play in all situations, including apartment
houses.  (Some of the demonstration rolls were hand-edited from the
existing commercial versions.  I have some "played by Cortot" rolls
with thrilling crescendi and fast-moving pedal effects, plus more
expression -- all added by pen knife.  What a contrast to the
background music that the public bought in local music stores!)

Many never-released Ampico rolls used to turn up in Wash., D.C. and NJ
(especially around Autopiano's plant in Belleville) in the 'Forties
through the early 'Sixties.  Nymph Errant (Ampico) by Cole Porter -
which suffered censorship on the Broadway stage -- was found on 7th St.
NW in the Capitol, and finally released a few years later , in the late
'Sixties or early 'Seventies!

I once met a man with a 1941 Chickering Ampico, near Belleville, who
had thousands of test/experimental/edit-master rolls , all with typed
labels on Ampico boxes.  Some were routine and others were definitely
unusual, or projects that were never completed.  I was there to see a
Leabarjan perforator at the time, so didn't pay much attention to them
- as the 'artist' is never on the roll for me.  Shortly after that he
died, and all the rolls disappeared.  (The typical story!)  I even
forget his name at this point, but he had some connection to the Ampico
duplicating (not arranging/editing) process at one time.

Hope this letter answers a few questions.  The whole idea of
'recording' a pianist is just a marketing ploy.  In order to make rolls
that sound good on players, you have to arrange them , even if it meant
using the code-word "editing", as the industry did in the old days.
It's like films vs. stage plays; what works in one medium doesn't in
the other.

Every person I knew who was the original owner of a player and its
rolls, never discussed the artist.  They said, "Look, we have Chopin's
Butterfly Etude and Don't Bring Lulu."  All this fake discovery of
artists came along with the LP's of music rolls -- beginning in the
late 'Fifties -- and then got recycled by the solenoid player people,
to a great extent.  The player clubs also suffer from self-styled
experts?  who don't make rolls but babble about them, when mathematical
arranging was "behind" the commercial roll(s) they treasure.

(I quote one, who serves as a 'review' -- or censorship -- board
member, writing me this sentence after an article had been published in
one of the club magazines: "Your rolls are caricatures of playing which
coax marginal instruments into inadequate performances."  Every Pianola
is different, so what would he know?  This joker also said that I
didn't understand lock-and-cancel , which is the simplest method of
operating things in players, especially the Ampico and Welte-Mignon.
As I said, there are many neurotics 'out there' in this field, who
fancy themselves as experts on the subject,  but don't create music
rolls.  If you don't make them from scratch, you really don't
understand the musical latitudes!)

When a roll exploits the player action's spectrum, it's exciting.  When
it tries to repeat something a pianist did, it fails , especially since
the roll should be Tempo 150-250 to catch the "touch" and staccato
effects of the pianist, and the subtle rubato changes.  For example,
most rolls jerk from 12% to 17% -- and over 25% -- in speed changes,
when audio recordings reveal that artists vary the tempo in the 4-8%
range.  So, where's J. P. Johnson (Kortlander) or Paderewski (W. C.
Woods)? They are in the minds of the customers who possess an excess of
wishful thinking.

This is an "Arranged Music Medium".  Audio is for recording artists,
and one can easily listen "into" old recordings and glean the accents,
tempi and pedal effects.  Those who tout the thin range of old Edison,
Pathe and Victor records just aren't listening!  (After all, people
hear music on short wave and AM, still, in our time!)

Also, most if not all Gulbransen Music Roll Co. rolls were "farmed-out"
-- to QRS in Chicago and later to Aeolian's Mel-O-Dee subsidiary in
Meriden CT.  The fake-artist's names were usually just pseudonyms, at
least on the rolls I've seen around here.

Hope this answers some of your questions!  At least, I tried!

Regards,
Douglas Henderson
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/
Artcraft Music Rolls