Several private E-mails to me about A, G, and O rolls have prompted
several questions that may be of interest to some readers of MMD.
These rolls are the more common and easily obtained types of coin
operated player piano rolls.

There were many other types also made.  The A, G, and O roll are 11-1/4
inches wide.  Several different companies made these rolls, with Clark
Roll Company making the greatest number of A and G rolls.  Very early A
rolls are also known a S rolls, and early G rolls were known as SS
rolls, to further confuse the situations.  Clark also made some O
rolls.

Clark rolls were also sold under the Automatic name as well.  Capital
Roll Co. (under the Columbia name in the early days) made the bulk of
the O rolls.  Capital also made A and G rolls which are usually very
good arrangements.  The A and G roll are perforated with six holes to
the inch.  The O roll is perforated nine holes to the inch.  These
rolls do not interchange with each other.

Perhaps this confusion has arisen because in the early 1920s a varia-
tion of the G roll was produced, most likely for the Nelson Wiggen Co.,
known as the 4X roll.  The later G rolls and all 4X rolls are arranged
for a single stroke xylophone and rapidly repeat the notes in the
xylophone range when this instrument is turned on or called for in
the roll.

Somewhere around Clark G roll number 500 they started making G rolls
with xylophone arrangements.  There was no set cutoff in the numbering
of these rolls for a changeover, as some late 500-numbered rolls (and
others) are still arranged for pipes that needed longer perforations
in the pipe section of the roll to sustain those notes.  The xylophone
arrangements tend to sound like a tremolo gone haywire on the
instruments with pipes.

Many A rolls have no markings and only a number.  If you unroll one of
these coin piano rolls you can identify it easily.  The first
perforation in any of the rolls is the 'rewind-to-play' holes.  These
holes operate a shifter in the piano to stop the rerolling process and
shift gears to the play position.  In G rolls this hole is near the
center of the roll.  On A and O rolls this perforation is near the edge
of the paper.   Since A rolls are perforated 6 holes to the inch and O
rolls are perforated nine holes to the inch this can tell you the
difference.

The next hole in all three of these types of rolls is the 'off'
hole, which turns the mechanism off until the next coin is deposited
(unless there are credits on the coin counting device known as the
accumulator).  The next set of holes in the G and O roll turn on or off
the extra instruments with a part known as the lock and cancel.  The O
roll perforations are near the edge of the roll and the G roll
perforations are in the middle section of the roll.

The A roll does not use a lock and cancel device as it turns on the
extra instrument by means of a long perforation.  As long as the
perforation is passing over the tracker bar then the extra instrument
is on.  The A roll has the capability of playing the mandolin and one
extra instrument.  The A roll pianos in the early models had pipe organ
pipes as the extra instrument and later instruments had a xylophone
(most common, although some had bells which is like a xylophone with
metal bars instead of wooden bars).

To really confuse matters, Nelson-Wiggen Piano Co. made a model with
both xylophone and bells, with some models playing the A roll and some
playing the G roll.  The G or O rolls use a combination of long
perforations and lock and cancel devices to operate the extra
instruments and functions these player mechanisms required.

If you have read this far, then you must be interested in coin-
operated pianos, and I recommend you read more in the Q. David Bowers
"Encyclopedia" about various coin piano rolls.  If you read any books
about the merits of one type of roll over another, then please take into
account that the author is just expressing his opinion that day he
wrote the article and his opinion may have changed since the
publication.  Many collectors often disagree on who made the best this
or that and who had the best music.  Not everyone likes chocolate.

Thank you,

Don Teach, Shreveport Music Co
1610 E. Bert Kouns, Shreveport,  LA  71105
dat-smc@juno.com