I have read with interest the comments about the Violano recently.
Over the past decade or so, I have had the opportunity to listen
to (and in a few cases work on) several dozen of these instruments.
They have demonstrated the full range from wretched screeching cats
to wonderfully musical instruments.  Unfortunately, there are more
of the former than the latter.

The sound quality is a function of many different factors, and only
a few owners seem to have the knowledge, patience and skill to bring
them all under control.  The type of strings and rosin are important as
are the bow wheels and general regulation of the machine.  Even if all
this is correct, a poor musical arrangement can undermine the listening
pleasure of a properly regulated and maintained Violano.

My machine has the latest Mills MIDI system installed, which allows
me to select whatever tune I want to listen to.  As many of you may
be aware, I have been scanning Violano rolls for the past few years
and have converted approximately 6000 tunes from original rolls to
play through the MIDI interface.  In addition, Mills Novelty has
arranged some really good music recently (some of the earlier "new"
music can be chalked up to learning and does not do the system
justice).

I can honestly say that the many visitors who have listened to my
collection are quite impressed with all my machines, but are most
impressed with the Violano.  They want to listen to several pieces
and enjoy them thoroughly.  I tend to shuffle the tunes I select for
my demonstrations as my mood goes.

Currently, I start off a demonstration with "Old Man River", from
roll 2802, as a real attention-getter to demonstrate playing a familiar
tune with a paper roll (it is also the first tune on the roll, which
makes setting it up for a demo much easier).  I then switch to the MIDI
system and play "Flight of the Bumble Bee", which is one of the newly
arranged pieces from Mills Novelty, to show a classical piece with
a lot of fast notes that is familiar to the audience.  I then play
"I Wonder What's Become of Sally" from roll 2435 to show off a really
good arrangement where all four strings are playing at the same time
showing off some really great melody and counter-melody lines.  Then,
depending on the age or interest of the audience, I might pick a few
other tunes when time permits.

It is very helpful having the latest wireless computer from Mills
Novelty, with its new program to do the demonstrations, since the
listener can browse through all the available tunes to pick out a
familiar one.  I have also printed out the lyrics for 50 popular tunes
to let people familiar with them sing along.

I have had many visitors to my collection and have never seen a single
one either lose interest or make a negative comment about the music
coming from my Violano.  This is not an accident, but is the result of
a lot of experimenting and adjusting over the years.

One of the biggest mistakes made by collectors demonstrating their
Violano is to play an early roll on a late machine or a late roll on
an early machine.  The coding is different for each type and the result
is catastrophic when the wrong combination is used.  Some of the best
musical arrangements can be found on early rolls (roll numbers less
than 1750), but when they are played on a late style machine, the
result is almost always finger nails on a chalkboard sound, especially
if the violin mute lever is present.  The dynamic encoding for the
violin will be all wrong and the piano damper will not work as intended.
Depending on the roll number, a late style roll on an early machine can
be equally unpleasant.

Another common problem is that the Violano in many collections sits,
unused, until visitors show up.  A frequently played machine will sound
much better than one that has sat idle, in part due to rosin hardening
on the strings.  Since installing the MIDI interface, my machine has
shifted from one that sat between demonstrations to one that is
listened to several times each week.

I have had more negative comments about the "loud and obnoxious" music
coming from my KT Special than I have ever had about my Violano music.
Many of my visitors are professional musicians, so their comments (many
positive about the Violano) come with musical experience and expertise
to back them up.

I, for one, thoroughly enjoy my Violano and the music it plays,
especially now that I can select the tunes I want to hear in the order
I want to hear them.  Many of the original arrangements were clearly
churned out to bring in the nickels and have little truly musical
qualities, but the good arrangements (and there are hundreds of them)
are true gems and well worth listening to, especially some of the newly
arranged music that has come from Mills [ http://millsnovelty.com/ ] in
the past two years or so.  It is great to not have to listen to four
ho-hum tunes on a roll waiting for the fifth one you want to hear!

Jack Breen
Southborough, Massachusetts