A question came up on the Yahoo pianophiles group about the reasons
for extended perforations on Ampico rolls. I have a dim memory of
reading somewhere that one of the reasons was that Ampico wanted to
ensure that their rolls could be played successfully (because they
imitated sustaining pedal effects) on non-Ampico, non-reproducing
instruments that did not have a hole in the tracker bar or an
associated pneumatic to operate the sustaining pedal.
I am also under the impression that the Ampico catalogue was more
heavily weighed towards popular selections whereas the Duo Art
catalogue was more weighed toward classical selections. Any comments
and corrections?
Thanks,
Bob Smith
[ Charles F. Stoddard, who developed the Ampico, held a patent on
[ the extended perforations. The Ampico editing staff didn't like
[ them because they weakened the roll. -- Robbie
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