Hello everyone,

As an active music roll maker, perhaps I can shed some light on the
situation regarding paper for making music rolls.  In today's
marketplace, few sources exist for paper with the needed properties.
Music roll paper of the sort used in the heyday of player pianos is
simply no longer made.  We must make do with what we can get.

Music roll paper needs these characteristics: to be of a uniform
thickness and acceptable airtightness, to perforate cleanly through
multiple layers, to have desirable esthetic qualities, and to offer a
reasonable expectation of long life.  It needs to be supplied in rolls
of about 12 inches diameter and be slit to a width suitable for our
perforating equipment, which trims the paper to 11 1/4" width as it
passes through.  Finally, it must be affordable.  Paper prices have
risen dramatically in recent decades.

The most suitable paper currently available for music rolls seems to be
paper of the dry-wax type.  Many of us -- perhaps most of us -- who are
making new rolls are using paper from Burrows, whose web site can be
found at:

    http://www.burrowspaper.com

Burrows does not accept orders for less than 10,000 pounds of the paper
needed; so in many instances an order will need to be split amongst
various roll makers.  Even in this quantity, the price ranges somewhere
between one and two dollars a pound, not including transportation costs.

The paper specification is 30/36 DW.  As I understand this, the numbers
indicate paper weight and wax content, and DW indicates dry-wax.  The
paper is shiny on one side where wax is applied, and that side is always
oriented to pass next to the tracker bar when rolls are played.

Unfortunately, recent deliveries from Burrows have not been of the
quality seen even a few years ago.  Some roll makers have experienced
serious problems getting it to perforate cleanly enough to be practical,
although the Precision Music Rolls perforator seems to do OK with it.

We at Precision Music Rolls are always looking for ways to improve
quality.  If a better source of paper can be found, we are eager to know
about it.  Perhaps the future may lie in imports.  In England, Julian
Dyer has reported finding a source of paper with excellent roll-making
properties.  At this point in time, the importing feasibility, in terms
of price and availability in the quantities needed, has not been
investigated.

Dave Saul, owner
Precision Music Rolls