Following our move from Revelstoke to Vancouver Island, we have at last
picked up on the re-building of our Nickelodeon.  Have just finished
rebuilding the stack, which performs beautifully on bench test, having
done the usual things to it.  Every Perflex pouch must have failed
quite early on, as its hammers aren't even strung!

We were about to re-fit the stack when we noticed a distinct oddity.
The break in the piano (where the covered strings change to wire and
the string direction changes) occurs at note 23 (D), counting from
bottom E, which is the first note played on the 'O' roll scale (D being
the last covered string, D# the first wire string).

The oddity is that the break in the stack occurs at note 21 (C)!
This results in there being no pneumatics to operate notes 22 (C#) and
23 (D), and a pneumatic (No. 22 on the stack) which has no piano key to
play from it.  Note 23 on the stack plays note 24 (D#) on the piano.

All is then in order, presumably, until we reach the treble end
where the last stack pneumatic plays G# on the piano, whereas the last
note on the 'O' roll scale is A.  This means that the xylophone (two
octaves, A# to A) only plays 23 notes, the top A being unused.  I hope
they tubed the stack to take all this into account, or the results will
be interesting.

My question is, is this usual with Universal nickelodeons, or is this
a rogue one?  I guess the makers thought that, with all the banging and
crashing going on, no-one would notice a few notes missing in the tenor
area, nor the top 'A'!

David Evans
Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada