This is an interesting subject.  I have been buying player piano
rolls since 1970.  Like most of us who are middle-aged collectors,
I have more than an ample supply of 88-note, Ampico and Duo-Art rolls.
If there is one lesson that I have learned about old rolls, it is to
buy a recut if possible, especially when the recut roll is available.
Like all of the readers out there, I do have favorite arrangements that
are not available, but with today's scanning technology, if one finds a
group who want a roll recut, it can be a better solution in the long run.

Age is not a friend of paper and there is a huge variation in the
quality of paper used by various manufacturers over the years.  The
region of the country where the roll has spent its life, the condition
of the tracking system used by each instrument and of course how the
rolls were kept all make a difference.

There comes a time when the practical life of an old roll is over.
Sometimes one has no choice but when paper is so brittle that long
chain perforations are bad, it is time to retire the roll or give it
to a scanner for preservation.  If one has a system such as Recordo or
Art Echo, etc., there is no other choice but to attempt to repair it.

I have bought "repaired" rolls from dealers and on eBay.  On many
occasions, they may have been spiffed up with new boxes or new labels
but the paper is still old and brittle.  I had one batch where the
rolls were disguised in Duo-Art boxes and the contents were shot
88-note rolls.  They were not worth the postage let alone what I paid
for them.

An occasional small tape repair is one thing but I have had rolls with
massive amounts of repairing which have definitely affected the play.
A roll with massive repair is basically junk.  In the phonograph world,
it is equivalent to a 2-minute black wax cylinder that may have a nice
container but the record is moldy.  The record is worthless junk.

For Ampico, the quality of the Dave Saul recuts is superb.  These are
never outs.  QRS still has a huge library of music available.  Keystone
is doing limited run productions of many nice selections, as is Meliora
and several other smaller dealers.

The paper is always good on a recut.  While the quality is not always
perfect, the paper is good. Duo-Art seems to be an issue for recutters
in regard to getting the snake bites correct but the point is that
recuts will last your lifetime if the playing equipment is in good
order and the rolls are kept under reasonably suitable conditions.

A repaired roll is old and tired and many of them are on borrowed time.
I have many old rolls in my library which have been repaired and will
probably never be recut but there is a point where the life of a roll
is finished.

If someone has to put hours of work in repairing a roll, it is
time that it goes to music roll heaven.  If it is really a tremendous
song or terrific arrangement, find a group of people and get it recut.
I have become extremely cautious about buying old rolls unless I can
play them before I buy.  The above not be the primary reason that
large lots of 88-note rolls tend to be cheap on eBay but for those of
us who buy rolls, we know that there is a throw-out factor in used
rolls.

Randy Hammond