In reference to the post in 130516 MMDigest about the North Tonawanda
Musical Instruments Works (NTMIW) band organ at Balboa Park, it was
completely rebuilt by W. N. Shoberg & Co. Pipe Organ Builders back in
the mid to late 1980s.  It is still serviced by them to this day on
a as-needed basis.

It is the last of the orchestral style organs from NTMIW that play
the 52-key endless loop music, which has become an issue.  The newest
of these loops was cut by the B.A.B. Organ Company in the late 1940s
or early 1950s.  In its music library still are music loops that were
produced by NTMIW back in the 1920s.  Other than some loops that were
produced by Wurlitzer in the 1930s, most of them were perforated on
rather poor quality paper.  Remember they wanted to the organ owner
to buy new rolls every season!

There is a fairly large collection of the endless loops with this
organ, however only a fraction of them are stable enough to play semi
regularly.  Thus the organ doesn't get played all that often, usually
only by request.  There are a couple of brass horn organs that play the
same 52-key loop music as this one.  There has been some talk in the
past of duplicating the existing libraries of music between these
organs, but for whatever reason it hasn't come to fruition.

Some say that this organ would be a candidate for a non-invasive MIDI
control system, but the owner really doesn't want to do that.

Bruce R. Pier