I believe Ken Marts is thinking of Barry Casper in Las Vegas as the
maker of his mystery nickelodeons. Barry Casper made many built-up
machines from old players here. He had a shop in the north-central
part of town. When he got out of the business, most of the building
was taken over by a local dealer and used primarily for piano
refinishing. The neighborhood deteriorated badly and the facility was
falling apart; consequently the dealer shut down the operation for good
about five years ago.
Barry became affiliated with QRS a number of years ago as a West Coast
representative. He may still be connected with QRS, but I'm not sure
at this point. I actually saw Barry for the first time in years a
couple of weeks ago and had a very brief conversation with him. I'm
not sure how many of the built-up machines he made, but I think there
were quite a few. I don't have his direct contact information, but I
know who does. If you want to track him down, I can get you hooked up.
If these machines have percussion, then they can't be using A-rolls,
which only have holes for pipes and mandolin as extra instruments.
Most likely they are O-rolls.
Rob Goodale
Las Vegas, NV
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