Hello in there year 2000,  I saw a comment in today's MMD that
concerned me.  In it, someone described the most common type of
mandolin rail as being hard on the strings.   It said that when the
rail drops, the metal pieces are in a position where they can be struck
by the hammer and driven against the strings.

When I built a rail for my piano, I checked out the design of these
things and discovered that the metal clips are actually positioned a
little _below_ the place where the hammer strikes.  This causes the
metal clips to be flipped against the string (causing a light chipping?
sound) instead of being trapped between the hammer and the string (like
the hammer had a metallic face).   This saves wear on both the hammer
and the string and the sound produced is much more pleasant.  With the
treble soft lever on, it actually sounds a bit like a mandolin.

There is another type of sound effect attachment that I have heard only
once.  We were at Vince Aveni's house in Cleveland, Ohio, for a meeting
of the MBSI local many years ago.  The attachment consisted of wooden
rods (I think) that could be dropped into position between the hammers
and the strings.   It made a very unusual sound, sort of like a
dulcimer.  I've never seen one since.

He also showed us a Scopitone and a Tanzbar (a player accordion with
a foot pump), among many other things.   When an advertisement for
"a Scopitone - video jukebox" showed up in the local swap sheet,
I knew just what it was.   Thanks Vince!

Regards,

Craig Smith

 [ Can someone tell us more about the wooden peg design?  I would
 [ especially like photo images to place at the MMD web site!
 [ -- Robbie