For the first time, there was only one exhibit with automatic music at
the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions
(IAAPA) convention in Dallas this past week.  The lone exhibitor was
Ragtime Automatic Music of California.  They exhibited their "Gazebo"
filled with instruments from accordions to steel drums, all played from
a computer.  It was nice and you could hear it several aisles before
you saw it.

They had an automatic banjo and automatic guitar, also MIDI played.
The fretting was nothing new -- just like the Encore Banjo -- but the
method of plucking the strings was quite a novel approach.  It is
difficult to describe but imagine a small cylinder with projections
around the perimeter.  The cylinder is rotated by a ratchet mechanism
driven by a pneumatic.  As it rotates one increment a projection plucks
the string.

The only drawback that I could see was the fact that you could not
pluck the string as rapidly as an Encore mechanism does.  Any of you
who have heard Dave Ramey's Banjo Orchestra playing Art Reblitz'
arrangements will know what I mean.  This new "invention" could not
repeat that fast.

"Automatic" tuning is available: one with weights and the other with
some sort of small motor to keep tension on the strings.  I had to walk
by it everyday when I entered the hall, and on the third day the guitar
was playing in a key of its own compared to rest of the orchestra.

The exhibitors were very nice and opened the cabinets of the guitar and
banjo and let me take photos.  When I get them processed and my scanner
gets on-line again I will post them on my site for the MMD.

One exhibit was a huge carousel: double decked, stunning, beautiful,
but totally dead -- no music.  And as I learned from the owner of the
park where I now live, no music means no riders.

If there are any rail fans in the MMD ('cross addiction', I think
they call it) the city of Dallas has done itself proud with the new
light rail system.  Fast, sleek and modern; they whisk you from down-
town Dallas to Mockingbird Lane station at 65 mph.  I stood behind the
"motor person".

Ed Gaida
egaida@txdirect.net