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Hi,  I was cruising the 'Net and found Robert Perry's article in 030217
MMDigest, "Pianist Howard Lutter of Artempo and Welte."

I have Howard Lutter's Acme mastering perforator which I acquired after
his son's death at an estate sale here in New Jersey in the early 1980s.
With it was also a Welte Licensee master roll from the late 1920s of a
pop tune that was done on it.  The perforator advance spacing matches
exactly the hole advances on Welte Licensee rolls, which would lead me
to suspect that the Licensee rolls were cut on standard Acme production
machines.

It is interesting to note that the holes of this master are spaced
3-to-1 (punch, full advance but no hole, punch) such as that seen
on almost all Welte or Deluxe pop rolls (like on a Pianostyle roll).
This allowed them, of course, to have a quick throughput on the
production end.  So, with the coarse spacing of the pop roll master,
the roll could be cut 1 to 1 from the master on the machine with little
or no chance of error (unless you jumped a sprocket hole).  Conversely,
look at the Welte or Deluxe classical rolls, and they are all reduced
from the 3-to-1 master roll spacing.

The master roll also was cut on a linen material almost like window
shade material, and coated with what appears to be a shellac or lacquer
type coating -- very strong and durable.  You could literally hang on
it and not tear it.  When I cleaned up the perforator, all of the
perforator chips were of this same type material.

Anyway, I found the information on Howard Lutter interesting, and if
anyone wants me to post a photo of his music roll mastering machine,
let me know and I will do so.

Glenn Grabinsky

 [ "Licensee" brand music rolls for the Welte-Mignon "Licensee" player
 [ piano system were manufactured by the successor firm to Republic
 [ Player Roll Corp., the De Luxe (Deluxe) Reproducing Roll Corporation,
 [ controlled by Auto Pneumatic Actions Co. of New York, a unit of
 [ Kohler Industries.  Ref. the rollography, "The Welte-Mignon, its
 [ its music and musicians," by Charles Davis Smith, (c) 1994 by AMICA.
 [ -- Robbie