Hello to All,  I'm new to the list, so I'll briefly introduce myself.
I'm Tony Greer, and I live in Texas, where I have lived all my life.
I have been in the neon glassblowing business for the past 23 years,
where I supply local sign companies with neon for use in the signs they
make.  I also like to experiment with the media, creating glowing glass
sculptures, similar in nature to the Geissler tubes of old.  But before
that, I worked for a mechanical music company for several years, where
I developed a love for those ingenious old machines.

A recent find has started me to wondering a few things that might be
answered by someone on the list.  During the late seventies and early
eighties, I was employed by Noble Stidham of Mechanical Systems, Inc.,
in Lubbock Texas.  MSI built, restored and repaired all types of
mechanical musical instruments, mainly player pianos, nickelodeons,
pipe organs and band organs, as well as manufacturing spool frames and
toys for the same.

In 1978, during my employment there, we built a band organ from the
ground up, based on the Wurlitzer 165.  This instrument was commissioned
by Ray Siou, in Oakland, Calif., to play the 165 rolls he was selling
at the time.  Noble and I delivered the band organ to his home/warehouse
on approximately November 17th of that year.  A day or two before we
left Lubbock, I set up a makeshift recording studio in the room the band
organ was built in, and recorded three 10-song rolls on reel-to-reel
tape.  Several cassette tapes were made from this master, and it was
put away after that.

Over twenty-five years pass, and I recently discovered one of the
cassettes.  To my dismay, the tape broke when I tried to play it.
I got to listen to a little of the recording, which made me recall the
master I had stashed away a quarter century ago.  After some digging
around, I found the original 10-1/2" reel of tape, which was still in
amazingly good shape considering the temperature and humidity variations
in my shop.  I still own the same Revox tape recorder I used to record
the tape, so playback was no problem.

Listening to the tape brought back a lot of wonderful memories about
building the most ambitious project MSI had ever done.  I hear that Ray
Siou is no longer in his huge warehouse house, and I was wondering just
what happened to that band organ?  Could this be the same one on Matthew
Caulfield's web page of Wurlitzer sound files, number 14 on the Unknown
Tunes list, at  http://wurlitzer-rolls.com/sounds.html ?

It sure sounds a lot like it.  This organ was predominately red with
gold leaf columns and trim, as I remember, and did not really resemble
the 165's I've seen.  A one of a kind, I'm sure.

I was just curious if anyone knew the current whereabouts of this band
organ.  I'd like to know how it has held up after all these years, and
if it is still in operation.  I thought the owner might like to have
a CD copy of the original recording of the instrument in its pristine
state before delivery.  I'd also like to know if anyone else has a
nickelodeon, orchestrion or other mechanical music instrument that was
built by Mechanical Systems, Inc.  I built probably close to 100 spool
frames, mostly 'O' and 'A' roll, while I was there.  Anyone still using
one of those?

Thanks to all, and any info would be appreciated most sincerely.

Waxing Nostalgic...
Tony Greer
Lubbock, Texas