Replying further to Paul Ward regarding coin piano rolls and band organ
construction [MMD 990924, "O" Tracker Bar Assignments].  In deciding
what type or size of band organ to build, you need to consider how much
time and money you want to invest, and weigh that against your skill as
an organ builder also.

How much room do you have to spare for a sizable instrument?  Do you
want to be able to move it around easily by yourself, or will it be so
large that it cannot be moved without a great deal of effort?

If you are planning a very large and elaborate machine you need to be
prepared to spend many months simply planning and designing the scales,
pipework, chest construction, pumps, etc.  I am sure that designing and
building even a small organ is much more of a project than it first may
appear.

I would totally forget about the idea of coin piano rolls for a band
organ.  Study instead the different roll scales that Wurlitzer used,
and others that European manufacturers designed.  If I were going to
build a band organ without using MIDI or a custom tracker bar layout,
this is the way I would go.  You will need to find a library with a
copy of "Treasures of Mechanical Music" that hasn't been stolen yet,
where you can sit down and compare the different scales.

If you like the traditional carousel sound with the music being mostly
American popular tunes of the 1915-1930 era, then you're going to go
with one of the three basic Wurlitzer rolls.  If you want a more
European sound which will tend to lean more towards semi-classic
marches and waltzes, you'll probably want to find out about what books
and rolls are available most easily from Europe.  Gebrueder Bruder is
probably the best choice here as far as availability.  These will often
be in folding book format and cost much more than Wurlitzer rolls which
are available from time to time at a fairly reasonable cost.

The generally available Wurlitzer rolls were designed in three basic
formats, basically dependent on the size of the organ using them and
they are not interchangeable between the organs.  Band organs are
divide into musical sections.  In the case of Wurlitzer, the divisions
are bass, accompaniment, trumpet (or counter melody) and melody.  You
will not that in listening to Wurlitzer rolls, that the trumpet section
(called counter melody by Wurlitzer) will almost always take the melody
line, leaving the melody section to fill in around it).

Wurlitzer rolls have a decent melody and trumpet section in general,
although rather non-chromatic, which means that every note of the
musical scale is not included.  Wurlitzer 125 rolls were the smallest,
with 5 bass notes.  Wurlitzer 150 rolls have a slightly larger melody
and trumpet section, but the serious drawback here is that they have
only 3 bass notes.  I have found 150 rolls to become the most tedious
to listen to for long periods of time.  Wurlitzer 165 rolls were the
largest band organ roll made in any quantity but still had only 6 bass
notes.  Wurlitzer 125 rolls have no automatic pipe registers, so the
organ has two volume levels: "kinda-loud" and "ultra-loud" depending on
the arrangement of the music.

The 150 roll provides for swell shades, as well as bells on/off.  Al-
though not exactly an automatic register, the 3 trombone pipes in the
150 roll are also scored separately from the 3 bass pipes so that the
bass can play without trombone, or vice-versa.

The California concern does have their rolls cut for them, and they
also used to glue their own proprietary flanges into the cardboard
cores of the rolls forcing you to use them only on their products.
Actually, I would just avoid the coin piano rolls entirely.  I think
they got all of their rolls from PLAY-RITE in Turlock, CA, but I'm not
sure.  I know that most of the Wurlitzer band organ rolls that are
floating around also came from PLAY-RITE so you might try to see if
they have any left.  Who's cutting what rolls when tends to vary
greatly.

If budget is a concern, time involved is a factor, and this is a first
project of this type for you, then maybe you should try building the
105 organ from the plans that are available.  I think the pipe freins
are available from a commercial source.  Use the Wurlitzer 125 roll
because of cost, availability, and a pretty fair musical output.  If
you have any machining facilities at your disposal you could manufac-
ture the roll frame and associated parts.  Others have done it and they
look and work great.  Perhaps someone has drawings or spare parts they
have made.  I know the roll chucks were available new at one time.

You don't really say what your experience is regarding mechanical
musical instruments of this type, but in order to complete a project of
this type you will need to understand pipe building and voicing, how
organ pipes work and why, wind pressure and its effect on pipe speech,
reed pipes and voicing, gluing leather together for pump construction,
valves and pneumatics, not to mention some fairly advanced woodworking
and metalworking skills.

MIDI control is certainly an option.  There are lots of guys out there
doing that also.  My experience is mostly with roll-operated instru-
ments although I'm installing MIDI in a coin piano right now.  Other
technicians here could probably help with that since my experience is
limited in that area.

John D. Rutoskey