Hi all!  I am also emailing a copy of this to Terry Smythe to put in
a future AMICA bulletin and for that article I will also include some
photographs of the damage that rubber bands cause.

- Why put rubber bands around music rolls?

In the late 1800's when music rolls first came out, they never had
rubber bands on them.  In 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 and most likely
up into the 1950's there were never any rubber bands on music rolls.

When I was first introduced to player pianos in the 1950's I never saw
any rubber bands on any player piano rolls at all.  What on earth would
you need rubber bands on rolls that you are going to play?  It seems
pretty stupid to me!

The Ampico Corporation, in all the years it operated up until it was
acquired by Aeolian Company after the crash of 1929, never used rubber
bands on their music rolls.  The American Piano Co. used beautiful and
gorgeous green printed paper seals around their rolls.  In fact today
you still can occasionally find an Ampico roll that still has the
original seal around the roll.

QRS music roll company, in the early days, never used rubber bands --
they used tissue paper wrapped around the roll and a beautiful QRS
gummed seal was placed on the top of the tissue paper.  Rarely, but
occasionally you will find one of these pristine rolls that was never
opened.

- Why were paper seals used around music rolls?

When the production machines were punching paper rolls, the paper was
pretty much flat and when placed around a core for a music roll, after
it was punched, it had a tendency to get loose, and unwind around from
the core.   Naturally the companies wanted the paper to form around the
core and stay in place when these rolls were shipped from the factory.

To hold the paper in place until it arrived at the music stores around
the country, these companies used a paper seal which served two
purposes:

(1) to hold the paper tightly to the core, to keep the paper from
unraveling and spilling into the box, and

(2) to let the customer in the music store see that they had purchased
a brand new roll and not a used roll.

It took time to print the seals for Ampico rolls, put glue on the ends
of the seals and punch the hole in the seals, and more time for the
ladies to wrap the seals around the rolls and glue them in place.  The
seal wrapped around the roll and the hole in the paper was where the
end tab went through.

At the base of the hole it had the words "TO BREAK SEAL PULL HERE."
Once you broke the seal, it was no brainier that you would simply place
the seal in your wastebasket.  Which is where 99.7% of them ended up.
A few did remain in the box.  If only 99.7% of rubber bands ended up in
the waste basket, we would not have this discussion and our rolls would
not be ruined by the rubber bands!

I have never found an original Aeolian or Welte roll with the original
seals, so I don't know what their seals look like.  I do know that they
never used rubber bands.  When the Aeolian Company started making new
player pianos and rolls in the 1960's and 1970's they then, regretfully,
used rubber bands on the rolls.  I have Aeolian rolls that date back to
the 1890s and there is no evidence of them ever having a rubber band
on them, except for someone putting them on in the late 1990s.

So what happened?  Well, it is called economics and profits.  The
companies were spending a lot of time and money and they wanted more
profits.  One day, some total "idiot" made the "stupid" suggestion,
"Why not use rubber bands instead of paper seals," as they were cheaper
to use and took less time to put around the rolls.  The rest is history!

It's sort of like when you look at your pillow it has that tag on it
that says "Do not remove under penalty of law," and of course no one
removes the tag!   So since the rubber bands do not initially break,
some people have decided that the rubber bands must be put back on the
roll when you are done playing them.

- Why do I hate rubber bands?

* They serve no useful purpose what-so-ever once you have purchased the
roll and bring it home.

* They get gummy and gooey and make a mess on beautiful roll leaders,
and ruin your valuable rolls.

* It is next to impossible to fully scrape this mess off the rolls.

* Sometimes these nasty rubber bands slide to the end of the roll and
slip between the flange and the roll paper and rip your rare roll to
shreds when you don't notice it and play it.

* How many times have you ripped the end tab off your roll when trying
to remove the rubber band?

* If the rubber bands are too tight, they cause indentations in the
roll, which usually does not play very well afterwards.


If you have read the threads in past MMDigests you will find some
great suggestions.  I personally like D.L. Bullock's suggestion to
simply cut the rubber band in two.  Be sure and carefully slide the
scissors between the paper and the rubber band so as to not tear the
roll.  Why stop at one cut?  So that the rubber band will not be used
to destroy any thing else, cut it several times before depositing in
the trash can.

Frank Adams never used rubber bands on his recut rolls, and he
reproduced the Ampico paper seals and put them on his rolls.  Neither
do I use rubber bands on my roll auction rolls.  However, the cost of
printing, punching and gluing the paper seals on the rolls is getting
too expensive...  But, Hell no!  I will find a less costly way of
putting some paper seal on the rolls; they may be just plain paper.

- Final notes

Get rid of the rubber bands and you don't really need any twine,
Velcro, or paper under a rubber band, or anything else on your rare
music rolls to destroy them.  The rolls are to play and they don't need
anything what-so-ever on them!  Preserve your rolls and protect them
from rubber bands!

Anyone is welcome to come and view my collection of rolls from the
1800s all the way up to today's rolls and you will not find any rubber
bands on them and you will find them resting very nicely in their
boxes, on the shelves, waiting to play great music for you to enjoy.

I do have a collection of Duo-Art rolls that I bought in which all the
beautiful leaders are ruined from some idiot who put rubber bands on
them.  Also a couple of 88-note roll collections where they were also
covered with gooey rubber bands and I will let you see them and spend
as much time cleaning the gooey mess off them as you would like.  I am
willing to bet when you are through cleaning rolls, that you will never
again put another rubber band on a music roll to ruin it.

I would love to take the person who invented the rubber band, dip him
in rotten rubber, tie him up with a rotten bungee cord and drop him off
the New River Gorge Bridge (in beautiful West Virginia) and watch him
splatter when he hit bottom.  Go and see the scenery in West Virginia
at the bridge where once a year they do have a festival: they close the
bridge to traffic and have bungee jumping, etc., off the bridge.  Lots
of fun to watch.

I really hope I have at least convinced one person to stop using rubber
bands?

Musically,
Larry Norman - from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Hurry down as the color of the leaves is about gone.  Sad to say that
winter is on its way, a great time to clean rubber bands off your rolls.