Larry Lobel said in his description of a 1910 catalog for sale :-

> 65-note rolls were the original size of piano roll, preceding the
> standard 88-note rolls which are now much more commonly found.  Once
> 88 note rolls became standardized, very few 65-note rolls were
> issued, and this occurred about 1915, so this catalog covers the
> majority of 65 note rolls made by Aeolian.


This is not seriously wrong, but in fact, 65-note activity only col-
lapsed quickly in the USA.  In the UK, the Orchestrelle Co. (Aeolian
subsidiary until name changed to Aeolian in 1920) was faced with the
problem that it had successfully sold many thousands of durable 65-note
instruments between 1899 and 1908.  Even then customers were demanding
dual-standard ones to suit their roll collections.

The monster 1914 London catalog shows that 65-note production had
immediately ceased in respect of new, lesser-known classical works,
from which we can assume that serious classical pianolists had switched
over to 88-note as soon as it appeared.

But this was a minute fraction of the market.  I must have seen fifty
home player pianos in the years between 1938 and 1970 and none of them
had roll collections larger than about 200.  Mr & Mrs Joe Bloggs (UK
version of John Doe) just kept the classics they liked and could be
persuaded to get one or two of the new Edward Macdowells, while a few
tearaways wanted fox-trots.  No-one would update the piano for just
these.

So pop classical and dance music, as the pink 1932 catalog witnesses,
continued to be issued in 65-note as well as 88-note until about that
year.  Only after that did the real attrition start -- and even then,
right up to 1940 all the Hayes factory issues of dance music (Triumph,
Meloto and Regent) came out in both formats.

Where an 88n issue was "accentuated" (given "snakebites" for Themodist/
Solodant pianos) the 65n of the title usually was, too.  The theme
holes were kept very small to avoid weakening the roll edges.  I have
a whole case of late 65n Regents of around 1938-39 and despite the
missing two octaves, where only sometimes were the notes doubled back
to the next octave, they swing, man ...

So there are plenty of 65n rolls to be had here today.  See the
MMD resource list for UK auctions and dealers.

Dan Wilson, London