To Tom Hutchinson and others with book music organs -- This post is a
little premature as my project is not quite done, but the information
may prove useful anyway.  I have several book organs in need of book
music.  Many of the old books need to be re-cut and I also want new
tunes for them.

One of the organs is a 52-keyless Bruder that had been converted
to play Wurlitzer 150 rolls.  I have restored the organ to original
condition playing book music, but of course I had no book music.
In this case I was lucky as the 52-keyless Bruder was a very popular
organ here and in Europe.  There is lots of music available.

Sometimes other organ owners are willing to sell some of the music they
have.  I have done this with two other Bruder owners.  It is not cheap
because it was not cheap when they bought or made it.  Most arrangers
in Europe will have a list of tunes for 52-keyless Bruder they have
already supplied to others and they can easily provide you with lots
of excellent music.  They can also arrange almost any tune you would
want.

The arranger uses great skill when arranging, especially for a scale
that is not chromatic.  Wayne Holton has arranged many tunes for 52
Bruders and can provide you with quality music.  Listening to his tunes
on my Bruder is why I am in this hobby.

Music is available from arrangers in many formats.  Most will sell
tunes already cut on card, or just marked on card and you punch it,
or a paper pattern where you must supply the card and then punch it,
or a MIDI file.  Some arrangers in England and Europe have automatic
punches, thus helping bring the cost of books down a little.

Another option is to copy other 52-keyless Bruder music.  There
are many great arrangements by Gustav Bruder, van Boxtel and Voigt.
When you copy music make sure any current arrangers are contacted and
paid for their work.  We all have an obligation to do this.

The best way to copy is using a scanner.  Then the scanned picture
is converted to a MIDI file and can then be printed.  The old way of
copying was to lay the old book over new card and mark each hole with
a pencil and then punch.  The next method, a little more efficient,
was to use a roller contraption much like a wringer washer.  The book,
a roll of blank paper and carbon paper were squeezed through the
rollers leaving a faint mark on the paper.  This is then laid on the
new card and punched.  I still have 1500 meters of this to cut for my
Bruder.

Punching books is done with a special punch.  Terry Haughawout made
several and sold them.  Ron Bopp may still have a punch for sale; the
one he has or had was copied from a European punch.  The blank card is
available in England and Europe or you can make your own.  There is an
article in a past Carousel Organ that explains one process of making
card.  I just bought a Potdevin gluer on eBay to speed up my card
making.

The goal of my project is to copy or make new books for my organs to
play.  So far I have scanned several thousand meters of old books.
Many of these books were in very bad shape and could not have been
copied by the old methods.

The scanner I use was built by Kevin Keymer with input from Terry
Smythe.  It works great and gives a museum-accurate scan.  Now Kevin
has built a punch that will use the scans we have to punch new book.
In testing so far it has punched two complete books.  The punch will
be able to cut books using files scanned from old books and new files
I get from arrangers such as Wayne Holton.

I am not interested in doing this on a commercial scale but I am
willing to help anyone who wants to do a similar project.  Saving
the old books is as important as saving the old organs!

Bill Nunn - Getting a little green here in Minnesota