It's difficult to piece together an originally intended tubing layout
for the Berry-Wood A.O.W., as the only known example has been meddled
with over the years.
For example, Berry-Wood drums were struck from within, providing a
rich, very musical effect. The drums on the DeBence A.O.W. have their
beaters placed externally, just as so many other manufacturers did.
There are provisions to play the snare drum on its rim, just as the
trap drummers of vaudeville orchestras of the day would! Both the
xylophone and bells are single-strike; using a striking system found
in some early organs consisting of vertically-propelled striking
shafts.
I doubt if the units in the Seabreeze/DeBence instrument are tubed to
their intended locks and cancels. It's double Autotypist rotary pumps
(one for pressure, the other for vacuum) make it noisy and quite clunky
when compared to a reciprocal combination vacuum/pressure pump as used
by Seeburg in its instruments with pipes.
Only time will tell if another example should surface; wouldn't it be
fantastic if all the original tubing were intact and untouched?
Stephen Kent Goodman
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