[ Bernt Damm wrote to Art: ]

Dear Mr. Reblitz,  For many years now, I have the bottom part of a
Hupfeld Sinfonie Jazz Orchestrion, Model 9.  I have searched high and
low for a top part for it but all I ever managed to achieve was a lot
of photographs of one.  I know that you are very knowledgeable on
Hupfeld as even MMM (Siegfried Wendel) in Germany have sought your
advice before.

From all the photos of this instrument, as well as other photos in
magazines, I have seen something that has bothered me for a long time
now and maybe you can solve the mystery for me.  Here it goes.

In the Hupfeld instruments, one often sees coils of lead tubing, say,
about (?) 3' long.  I have seen them mostly near the snare drum in
these instruments.  Could you tell me what these are for?  My
assumption is that they are some form of delay line, but for what?

Also, in recordings, I have heard that the Hupfeld snare drum sounds
a lot more human than, say, an O-roll [Operators] snare drum.  Could
you perhaps tell me how the snare drum is driven, i.e., does its damper
oscillate or lift automatically or what?

Lastly, if you know of any top part for such an instrument, I would be
very interested indeed.

This would really mean a lot to me for personal enrichment. I have
in the past e-mailed Jens Wendel with these questions but have never
received any answer.

Thank you very much and Kind Regards,

Bernt Damm
Cape Town, South Africa

 - - -

The coil of lead tubing near the snare drum in a Hupfeld orchestrion
is a delay line which generates the repeating action of the reiterating
beater.  The output signal from the controlling valve goes through the
coil to a pouch input that reverses the state of the pouch.  There is
also an isolation valve so the reiterating signal is kept apart from
the pneumatic which is doing the mechanical work.

The same principle was used for the tremolo in certain models of
Hupfeld Sinfonie Jazz (although other methods were also used), in Welte
snare drums, and for the reiterating tympani beater in Peerless "O"
roll orchestrions (not the same as Coinola "O" rolls).  It works quite
well, but has the disadvantage that the reiteration speed can not be
adjusted without changing the length of the coil.

I once had some fun experimenting with the tympani repetition speed in
a Peerless Arcadian that we were restoring.  First, I connected a short
piece of tubing, perhaps two feet long, in place of the coil.  This
caused the reiterating valve to vibrate like a reed at a high pitch.
Then I substituted a whole 100-foot coil of tracker bar tubing, just
to see if the signal would get through.  Sure enough, the valve still
reiterated, but at a rate that was probably once per second or slower.

Art Reblitz