-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD --

Recently I was able to locate, borrow, and transcribe all seven of the
special rolls that the Ampico company issued for Christmas, 1923-1927.
Most of these have the year of issue printed conspicuously on the roll
label and box, but the early ones just said "Merry Christmas" or
something similar, and the year was omitted.

In her rollography, "The Complete Catalog of Ampico Reproducing Rolls",
publ. 1977 by William H. Edgerton, author Elaine Obenchain has recon-
structed the issue dates for these early rolls.  The later ones were
"theme" rolls, such as "Grandmother's Christmas" and "Toyland."

The ANN/BAR files for these rolls are available free of charge to
anyone who has previously bought my CD-ROM containing 350 Ampico roll
images.  Just send me an e-mail note and I will get the files off to
you.

Best regards,

Wayne Stahnke

 [ Editors note:
 [
 [ The BAR file format, with companion ANN text file, is essentially
 [ an image of the master roll which controls the perforator.  Computer
 [ programs such as "View" and "WindPlay" read the files and produce
 [ output signals for operating pneumatic pianos fitted with electric
 [ magnet valves, such as the PowerRoll.  See the articles by Wayne
 [ Stahnke in the MMD Archives, especially these:
 [
 [   970820  Preservation of Mechanical Music
 [   970827  Prototype Rolls and Pattern Rolls
 [   970903  Ampico 57504 Pattern Roll & "View"
 [   970907  "View" Tutorial for Duo-Art
 [   990417  CD-ROM of Music Roll Images for "WindPlay"
 [
 [ The "View" program and tutorial for Ampico may be downloaded at
 [    http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/transcribing.html
 [
 [ -- Robbie