I can't remain silent having just read Berley Antoine Firmin's posting
about how crummy Regina Chime Clocks sound.  [990831 MMD ]

Many of these chime clocks do sound pretty bad after 80 years, but it
has nothing to do with their design or "build quality".  I've owned
three of these uncommon Regina products over the past 20 years, and
have restored two of the three.  One had been half-restored by a
less-than-competent technician, and the bells (there are 14, nested on
two dowel-rods) had been scrambled.  You can only imagine the resulting
"music", which was unrecognizable.

True, the clock's movement is a plain old cheap standard-grade Seth GF;
I'm not a clock guy, so I don't know the exact terminology.  It is a
weight-driven movement, though, so I don't understand Mr. Firmin's
reference to the clock's "spring barrel".  Sounds like his clocks
movement had been replaced.  In any case, the original movements will
keep very good time, as my Model 81 has for the 30 years since I put
a few bushings in the worst holes and called it fixed.

As far as I have been able to tell, the Regina chime mechanism is a
unique machine in mechanical music.  It is cleverly compact and beauti-
fully made, and I think it is every bit as delicate to set up and
regulate for top-quality play as any decent cylinder music box.

Restoration is a straight-forward matter, but once everything is prop-
erly bolted and screwed back together, the work has only just begun.
Since each 11-inch chime disc contains six selections, with each tune
(or chime sequence) composed of roughly 40 to 50 notes, it turns very,
very slowly to complete a sixth of a revolution.  That only amounts to
about five inches of total travel measured at the disc's rim in the 45
seconds or so that it takes to play a single tune.  So even a slightly
bent disc projection can throw the timing of the music way, way off.

Then there are the chime hammer rods -- all 30 of them -- which are
each nine or ten inches long.  As the disc projection passes under its
star-wheel, the wheel s-l-o-w-l-y lifts the called-for hammer about two
inches above the appropriate bell and then drops it, just the same way
a tooth slides off a star-wheel in a disc music box, only the action
takes something like five times as long!

The best tunes (there seem to have been 30 or so available from Regina)
end with a pair of lovely chords, and some others have five-, six- or
eight-note 'runs' within the music.  When things are not *precisely*
right, 'music' is not what you will hear; it's more like semi-random
notes with a tune just barely apparent.

The normal set-up is for the six-tune disc to play one tune (or chime
sequence) on the hour, just after the clock has finished its hour-
strike sequence.  The clock strikes the half-hour as well, but doesn't
trip the chime unit unless the clock movement has been modified.
I know of no way to make the unit play on the quarter hours, as Mr.
Firmin mentioned.

In any case, I want my fellow MMDers to know that -- like everything
else Regina made that I have heard -- the Chime Clock is a solid, high-
quality, good-sounding product.  But, as Art Reblitz said here not long
ago about the heavy time that's required putting the final touches on
an orchestrion restoration to bring out all its musical capabilities,
so it is with this unusual musical clock.  And if the restorer doesn't
have "the music in his head", how can he know what he should be
reaching for in the final restoration?

If you want a closer look at the Regina Chime Clock, there's an excel-
lent article in the 25th Anniversary MBSI book -- good illustrations
and pictures and a thorough explanation of the mechanism by John
Bishop, a young collector who died at about the time of publication
(now 25 years ago).

As to value, I would agree with Mr. Firmin's reaction to a recent sale
price of $16,000 as way out of line.  My experience would point to a
value range of $4,000 to $8,000 for most unrestored but complete and
cosmetically good Regina Chime Clocks.  Perhaps some of the fancier,
rarer styles could bring somewhat more, but it seems these clocks
usually "fall between the cracks" with collectors -- not enough clock
for a clock collector, and too far from a music box for most of us
music box folks.

I sure do like 'em, though.  Steven Foster's "Ol' Black Joe" softly
filling the house at midnight is a soothing way to end any day.

Still looking for original chime discs, anyone?

Rich Marschner