Hi all,  From my personal experience on loaning people unique music
rolls, I can relate to other people who may not wish to loan rolls.
Maybe they have had the same experience I have had.

Twenty or so years ago a friend, who still is a friend, asked to
borrow some rolls for a friend of his who was looking for a few
specific titles.  Two titles I remember are "Baby's Birthday Party,"
"Rip Van Winkle Slept With One Eye Open" and about a half dozen other
rolls.  Well, it has been over 20 years and I have never seen these
rolls ever returned.  I frankly do not ever expect to see these rolls
ever again.

I loved my copy of "Rip Van Winkle"; it was a favorite roll.  I have
never found another copy to replace it either.  Another time, I was
asked to borrow my set of three QRS 88-note opera rolls of Aida by
Verdi.  It was over a year before they were returned.

When I was restoring my Knabe Ampico I borrowed a switch plate from a
player piano shop for the Modify, Repeat, Ampico and Pedal, and sent
it to a plating company to get a sample of gold plating.  The player
shop was interested in having their metal special switch parts plated
also.  When I returned to the plating shop several days later, they
could not locate the part.  Fortunately the player piano company from
whom I had borrowed the part had a few extra ones and did not care that
I had lost it.  With all these episodes, I can relate quite well to
people who are reluctant to loan Unique Music rolls for recutting or
copying. They probably had been burned as I have been.

The other issue is "Why don't people recut unique music rolls?"  I can
understand this issue as well.  I have seen this subject come up many
times in the MMDigest.  Well, here is my two cents on it.

I just finished having recut two tunes which I think are worthy of
recutting.  They are "Back Water Blues", played by Finisher Johnson, a
tune made famous by that great blues singer, Bessie Smith, and "Yankee
Doodle Blues", a tune with words by DeSylva and Caesar, with the music
composed by George Gershwin.  The tune is recut from a roll hand-played
by Clayton Hallowell.

Mike Montgomery tells me that the sheet music for "Back Water Blues" was
never published -- they simply put out a few sheets for bands to use.
I have both a copy of this roll by Finisher Johnson and a copy by J.
Lawrence Cook.  I personally think that the Johnson roll is far
superior to Cook's version.  You can listen to it and all the rest of
the rolls that I have had recut over the years on my web site.  Go to
my web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~rollertunes/ and click on
recut rolls and you can listen to a sample of each roll that I made.

It is very disappointing to make recut rolls available to the public
and not have the public support you in this endeavor.  There are over
60 billion people in this world and to break even, and to justify my
cost, I calculate that I have to sell a minimum of 20 copies.  I only
made 15 copies of both of these rolls because I do not have enough
people who will buy the minimum production run.  I have a colored copy
of the sheet music for "Yankee Doodle Blues", and I am faced with the
dilemma that I only have two orders for this roll and I have only three
orders for "Back Water Blues."  With a necessity of selling 20 copies
to break even, how do I justify producing 15 color copies of the sheet
music to include with the "Yankee Doodle Blues" roll when I only have
two orders?

Why do I produce copies of these unique music rolls?  Basically it is
because people have asked for copies of rolls in my collection and I
love to share them.  I think it is great to share unique music rolls
with other collectors.  It is very obvious that it is not a money
making endeavor; it is a labor of love of the music and the desire to
share that music.  But where are these people who want these rolls?

There are people out there making great recut rolls of very unique
music rolls, but where are the buyers to support these recutting
efforts?

A few days ago, Scott Boelman, who makes new recordings of "88-note
Classical Rolls by Lazy Dog Piano Rolls (Scott Boelman)" in the 040412
MMD said:  "Thank you for your support of Lazy Dog Piano Rolls,
small-time maker of 88-note classical piano rolls.  Unfortunately
I have only found a few buyers.  In spite of my lack of sales, I have
updated my web site, changed my audio files to MP3 and added some more
rolls for sale."

Now, Scott is not recutting rolls but is making new hand-played 88-note
classical rolls.  I can understand that there are fewer classical music
lovers than blues or ragtime lovers, but there should be enough people
in the 60 billion people in the world to support his efforts.  I did
not check every roll that he has produced to verify that the music has
been done on rolls before.  Most of the titles he has produced have
been done on some brand or another.  But I proposed to him that if he
produced new rolls that were never done on player piano rolls before
that there might be a market, especially if he could put on the
reproducing coding for Ampico, Duo-Art, Welte and maybe a few other
reproducing systems.

How many people would buy classical rolls if he were able to produce
some great classical pieces that were never done on piano rolls before?
I suggested some of the fantastic piano pieces that you would find in
the piano competitions would make great candidates for producing a
roll.  I would love to get my hands on a set of rolls of Mussorgsky's
"Pictures at an Exhibition" for either Ampico or Duo-Art.  How many
others out there would like a copy of this piece also?

I would like to know how many people have either an original copy or
a recut copy of "Back Water Blues", or any of the other rolls I have
done?

Since there are a lot of people out there writing to the MMD that
they would like to get copies of unique music rolls, I think that we
recutters and makers of new rolls would like to know why you don't
support us when we do make rolls available.  You keep saying you want
rolls, but where are you when we do produce rolls?  I think all of us
people who produce rolls would like to have some answers.

I would like to see the MMD members visit all the different web sites
listed for all the people who produce rolls and give some feedback
about each.  What do you like?  Are the titles great?  Not so great?
Are our prices too high?  Too low?  Are we selecting musical numbers
that you like?  Have they been done already too many times?  What are
we doing right?  What are we doing wrong?  How can we increase our
sales?  How can we reach more customers?

Well, there is my two cents.  Thanks for your answers to our questions.
Don't be afraid to give us some constructive criticism.  I, for one,
would like to honestly know if I should continue to make unique music
rolls available or whether I should quit wasting my time.  Thanks!

Musically,

Larry Norman  - from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The Spring
days are gorgeous here! Come down and travel the Blue Ridge parkway and
enjoy the beautiful spring weather we are having.