Yesterday Shirley Nix asked about rolls for the Aeolian Solo
Orchestrelle for her friend in Japan.  What she is looking for are
116-note "Aeolian Pipe Organ" rolls, which also play on the larger
"Solo" reed organs.  They can be recognized by their olive green,
cloth covered boxes and orange-and-gold labels.

Occasionally these are offered for sale, or are seen on eBay, but
they are uncommon, and those of us who have them, like me, rarely
want to get rid of them.  Both Play-Rite and Carl Lambe have 12/inch
perforators which could make recuts, but so far no one has been
persuaded to undertake such a project.

Meanwhile, the only source of new paper for this organ would be to take
recut 176-note Aeolian Duo-Art Pipe Organ rolls, and trim them down to
fit the 116-note spoolbox.  Aeolian was great for back-compatibility,
i.e., Duo-Art to Themodist to 88-note format.  Likewise their three
most common organ roll formats were back compatible.

The original 58-note Aeolian Grand rolls were made on 10-1/8" paper,
punched 6 to the inch.  When the 116-note, two-manual pipe organ rolls
were introduced, a second set of 58 notes were interleaved with the
original 58 notes, resulting in a roll with two staggered rows of much
smaller holes, punched 12 to the inch.

Note that while most Solo reed organs have only one physical manual,
they have two sets of "internal inputs" from the tracker bar which
enable them to play from the roll as if they were two-manual.  58-note
rolls, with all the pop music, and having the same spool configuration
and paper width, could also be played on the 116-note instruments by
means of a switch which disabled the "upper row" inputs and read the
58-note music into the lower manual only.

Likewise, when the fully automatic Duo-Art Pipe Organ rolls were
introduced, they just copied the same 116-note music format, and added
60 holes for the automatic swell and registration controls.  The result
was a 15-1/4" wide roll, with 32 extra holes on the left and 28 extra
holes on the right, but in the same 12 per inch staggered pattern.

116-note and 58-note rolls can also be played on many of the Duo-Art
instruments, using a chuck adapter, adjustable width take-up spool, and
the appropriate logic switches.  The musical part of all three formats
is the same.

However, the 116 perforations of musical content on the Duo-Art rolls
are not exactly in the center of the roll.  One must trim off 68 mm
from the left edge, and 62 mm from the right edge.  Then, when the
result is respooled on 10-1/8" pin-end spools, it will fit in the
116-note instrument.

In my opinion, the best way to trim the rolls would be to remove the
flanges and roll up the paper very square and tight on a 3/4" diameter
dowel that just fits inside the core.  Then clamp the paper tight with
several rack-and-pinion hose clamps, and cut off the extra paper using
a lathe.  This must be done with care, since the roll is guided only
by its edges, tightly confined by the adjustable spool flanges that are
used on 116-note instruments.  With 12 perforations per inch, there is
not much allowance for paper wandering.

Another source of music would be recut coin piano "A" rolls, which
could be trimmed so that their 58 notes of musical content, at 6 to the
inch, would fit the lower manual holes on the 116-note tracker bar.
But then the organ would only play one manual, using the "58 Note
Music" switch, and might sound more like a piano.

New 176-note rolls can be purchased from:

  Kegg Pipe Organ Builders
  11366 Cleveland Ave. NW
  Uniontown, Ohio 44685
  tel.: 330-966-2499
  http://www.keggorgan.com

Richard Vance