I do not think that shortening the numbers of the Ampico rolls would
be a good thing.  In the case of someone who deals with Ampico only and
hundreds of such rolls, then he is probably using such a shortened
system already.

In the case of someone who deals with many different types and brands
of roll, It would require a mental gear shift when in Ampico mode.
Another brand may call for another shift to another system of number
shortening.  This could be extremely confusing to someone who is new to
automatic music rolls and the like.  I think, since the rolls cannot
all be recalled and renumbered, then they need to be left as the factory
numbered them.

This would also play havoc with MARC format or meta-data or bibio-
graphic databases like Library of Congress or OCLC.  Any serious
renumbering would probably need to be cleared with the American Library
Association.  Those people keep the complete list of every published
work--book, serial, recording, roll, etc.

In our own databases it might be helpful to put the last digit into its
own separate field so that when sorting by number the rolls would be in
correct order.

D. L. Bullock    Piano World    St. Louis