Group,  I have followed the several communications on the Aeolian
Duo-Art pipe organs with interest, and since my wife, Halie, and I have
one of the relatively few of these that actually plays well on paper
rolls, I thought I would offer a few comments.

First,  I must remark that I have not had the negative experiences that
some people have reported about the quality of the paper.  We have
bought three complete collections (one about 40 rolls, the others 100
and 150 rolls) plus we have blindly selected 20 others (ordered them at
a distance without viewing them), and I cannot tell you that there is a
single roll which is unplayable primarily due to poor paper quality.

Some are unplayable (about 5%), but it is evident that they had very
heavy use, water damage, or some other factor that has been primarily
responsible for their unplayability.  True, if the paper were as good
as is used today, some would still be playable, but our experience has
not been that poor paper quality is a major problem.  Perhaps we have
just been lucky...

Second, up to about 1918, the standard roll was 116-note which was
about 10.25 inches wide and which consisted of 58 notes for the Swell
manual and 58 notes for the Great manual, the pedal normally being
connected with the Great.  Instructions were printed on the roll about
which stops were to be drawn and the degree which the swell shades were
to be opened.

Beginning in 1918, Aeolian came out with a 176-note roll (about 15.25
inches wide) which had the standard 116 notes in the middle and 30
notes for registration on each end.  At that point, the organ would
completely play itself.  Our 1927 organ is in this group.  The tracker
bar consists of 7 pieces, the middle one of which is anchored and does
not move.  The other three on each side do move as a unit based on a
single pneumatic rather than one for each piece of tracker bar (see
below).

Third, the adjustments for tracking are tricky, but once correctly
adjusted, the mechanism plays with great accuracy unless a roll is an.
All the Duo-Art rolls were playable on all the Duo-Art organs.  They in
fact call for as many as are present of 26 pipe ranks plus harp plus
chimes.  If fewer ranks are available on an organ, fewer get played.
Thus, these rolls are broadly usable.

Finally, the electronic age is upon us, and many of these organs have
been changed to MIDI or a variant thereof.  It is my impression that in
fact few are actually playing off paper.  On the West Coast, I know of
no others than ours and the one by Mike Ames, but our readers hopefully
can enlighten us of more.  I am sending Kent Arnold some rolls in an
effort to get the Aeolian in Pasadena up.

It would be of great interest to me and it would facilitate communica-
tion if we could compile a list of Aeolian pipe organs (either 116-note
or true Duo-Art 176-note) that were actually playing off paper rolls.
therefore, I would be most grateful if everyone on the list who either
has one of these playing off paper rolls or who knows of one would send
me a note.  I would then be quite willing to construct a list of these,
make the list available to MMD, and put these select people in touch
with each other.

Finally, for those Aeolians out there which are not playing off paper
but which still have the mechanism, I would like to encourage their
being restored to original roll playing condition.  It is complex, but
it is doable and there are some rolls available.  I would be happy to
help with some coaching if requested.  The results are marvelous, and
I am most anxious that we preserve these instruments.

Carl Dodrill
Mercer Island WA
dodrill@accessone.com