Hi all -- A lady sent me this email, and we're wondering if there
are any thoughts out there?
I happened upon the AMICA web site and would like to ask if you or
anyone you know can help me identify two piano rolls that I have
that do not play on a regular player piano. They appear to be
65-note rolls, but rather than pin ends they have the end caps that
you see on regular 88-note rolls. The titles are "The Mocking Bird"
(Virtuoso 3283) and "When A Coon Wants To Spoon He Don't Need Any Moon".
The following information is from Richard Ingram:
The only thing I can think of is that they are in fact 65-note
rolls with the flanges changed. On some older pianos that were
transitional (they played 65- & 88-note rolls), you would have needed
to change the chuck in order to play one or the other. If someone
had mostly 88-note rolls, they would change the flanges (or re-roll
the paper onto an 88-note core with flanges) on the few 65-note
rolls they had, so they would not have to change the chuck as well.
Many transitional players just had a switch on the spoolbox to
change from 88 to 65, and required the chuck adapter to be switched
as well. If only the switch needed to be moved in order to play
65- or 88-note rolls, one could see why the flanges would be changed
to remove one extra step from the process. There may be another
explanation as to why the 65-note roll with 88-note flanges, but
I don't know what it would be. I have a few of these and wondered
myself, and that is the only explanation I can come up with. You
may want to post on MMD, and maybe we all can learn something!
Feel free to post the above if you would like. -- Rich
Any more ideas? I have pictures she sent if you need to see them.
Shirley Nix
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