What it looks like, or how the gizmos giz and mo, is of minimal
importance to me (but I'm just me, after all).  I love orchestrions
and band organs and coin pianos because I'm in love with music from
that era, or at least as musically interesting.  Perhaps it's because
I write music as well.  A well turned phrase or particularly well done
piece of counterpoint, rhythmic or otherwise, just makes me melt, and
when I can hear it live it's even better.

Perhaps that's why I like Capitol rolls over Clark and Wurlitzer.
Or Paramount; or US rolls by Robert Billings or Rudy Erlebach or Ralph
Reichenthal; or the OPT or JLC when he gave a damn or...  Because they
are clever and inventive.  Because they show that the people that did
them _cared_ about what they did.  It was more than just a _job_.
Because I want to _hear it again and again_.

I'll go a mile to hear a Weber Maestro, but not even nearly as far
for a Wurlitzer PianOrchestra, because the guy that did the Maestro
arrangements was just plain better, tune for tune, than the guy that
did the Wurlitzer stuff.  Maybe it's the taste of the guys that did
the records, but I yawn at Wurlitzer stuff.

Same for a "G" or "O" (or "SO") instead of a "J" or "H". "G" used
Capitol, "J" and "H" used Clark.  The "H" and "J" may have superior
engineering, but who cares if the bulk of the tunes just plod along
trying to satisfy the lowest common denominator until the coin trip.
Boom-chuck-boom-chuck-twinkle-twinkle-twinkle on and on and on.

But....  That's just me.

George Bogatko