Noted here as well was the excellent heralding done by Larry Kerecman
in the 181224 MMDigest, concerning the surprise appearance of "Old
No. 3" now up for sale on eBay.  It would seem that The Fates are not
yet quite done with the instrument and that there yet is more to go in
all their traveling careers.

I was intending to do a Part 4 to the purpose of clearing-up some
inaccuracies, that have crept into the body of legend and lore, that
the Tushinsky instruments are gradually becoming, or so it would seem.

To this end, first is the matter of the false popular belief that No. 3,
the Tri-Plex instrument that I designed and built, was somehow involved
with the "Keyboard Immortals Play Again In Stereo" recordings.  Not-so!
The No. 3 was delivered, I think, two years after such recording
sessions had ceased.

Tom Steuer -- sadly deceased popular MMD reader and contributor --
handed to me a final draft of a work-up he was doing for publication in
the AMICA Bulletin, in early 1997.  (Or, as I think he said it was for
but, as I've not been an AMICA member nor subscribed to The Bulletin for
almost half-a-century now, I could not swear to it.)  I read it over
carefully and thought it very well done and accurate.  I have it still.

However, only yesterday evening I ran across an item that Tom
contributed some time earlier that I found in at least one aspect
to be in error.  Of course, this was before the draft.  Here is the
excerpt of interest, the last phrase being accurate but the rest not:

  " ... The huge roll collection and the four-system Vorsetzer had
been used by Tushinsky for his "Keyboard Immortal" radio shows and
LP recordings, and the roll collection was also the basis of the
Pianocorder library."

The entire of it can be reviewed here:

  http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/199702/1997.02.26.06.html 

It was Tom's very first posting, and his follow-up after having received
it back from the mentioned personage that worked on it, is here:

  http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/199710/1997.10.24.07.html 

When once I visited his home to see his newly-acquired No.3 in March or
April, Tom stated that he'd paid the auction house $1600 for it earlier
in February 1997 or $2,512 in today's, for a cumulative inflation rate
of 57.0%.

Tushinsky had paid me for the commission well over ten-times that for it
and, in far greater-valued dollars $18,500 which equivalence for those
of 1972 would be a whopping $111,547.00 presently, for a tidy 503%
cumulative inflation rate!  Yikes!

I just-now ran these numbers having not done-so before, and was
flabbergasted at the results.  I now realize why the amount I'd received
seemed to have lasted for so long, and bought so much! (I'd be delighted
to build another and better one, for that later amount.  I'll be
standing by.)

Seriously though, I would suggest to any interested to purchase the
device presently on eBay post-haste, for it is A BARGAIN at a paltry
$19,500.

I am including a nice crisp image of the spool-box, back when brand new.
And also, a view of the principal actors in this drama.

I must mention too, that all of the machining work for the creature
was done by Joe Gaide of C-Jay Machine Works of Northridge, California.
Joe G. did all the work for Sony-Superscope / Marantz until they got
big, and just couldn't keep up.  Truly, he was a master of metallic
fabrication.

Also, and to close, most interesting is the revelation found within the
eBay offering description, regarding the alleged fate of that other
Duo-Art Vorsetzer, it being now apparently in the no-doubt-capable hands
of The Chopin Institute at Warsaw, in Poland, EU.

For convenience, I'll here reproduce the entire of it.

-Start--

Joseph Tushinsky was a wealthy businessman and the president of Sony
Superscope who lived in Beverly Hills, California.  He became interested
in piano rolls in the late 1950s and early 1960s and amassed a huge
collection of rolls along with a Welte Vorsetzer that he coupled with
a Bösendorfer Imperial concert grand.

Mr. Tushinsky began broadcasting a radio program sponsored by Sony
Superscope every Sunday evening called "Keyboard Immortals Play Again
-- In Stereo" beginning in the fall of 1966 with those broadcasts
continuing until his death more than a decade later.

It was during this period that Tushinsky commissioned the building
of a series of custom Vorsetzers to allow playback of rolls from
manufacturers other than Welte.  One of these units was a Duo-Art
Vorsetzer that was eventually purchased by the Chopin Institute in
Warsaw where it remains in use to this day.  However, Tushinsky's quest
for the ultimate Vorsetzer culminated in the legendary multi system unit
being offered for sale here.

This Tushinsky "Tri-Plex" Vorsetzer was the remarkable creation of the
brilliant technician Jim Miller and, with a simple turn of a single
knob, could play all four types of piano rolls: Welte T-100 (Red), Welte
Licensee, Duo-Art, Ampico,

The Tushinsky "Tri-Plex" Vorsetzer is actually part of a larger
collection of Vorsetzers which includes those of Welte and Hupfeld as
 well as a Duo-Art Vorsetzer custom built by the late Gerald Stonehill
 of England with the latter being used to produce a famous series of
CD's issued on the Nimbus label.  These additional Vorsetzers are also
available for sale.

--End--

As according with my knowledge, all of the above seems accurate.

The precise date of the first KBI broadcast was on the Sunday evening
of October 2, 1966.  It's title was (most appropriately) "Keyboard
Immortals Play Again."  The first selection was the Moto Perpetuo of von
Weber as splendidly recorded and played by no-less-than Josef Lhevinne.

This particular record-roll happened to have been a white-lined-paper
master, and it was a magnificent performer.  I'd noted that it was
soiled around the leader, and on the label, indicating much prior use.

No wonder that.  I spied it right-off and kept an eye on it for years,
finally acquiring it in a trade a decade-and-a-half later, it along with
many other cherry-picks, these in exchange for the re-assembly of No. 3,
which had been in a totally disassembled state for upkeep and a design
changes that we were doing, when Joe Tushinsky passed away unexpectedly.
The rest of this story for perhaps a later time.

Jim Miller
Las Vegas, Nevada

 [   Tushinsky Tri-Plex spoolbox open
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/18/12/26/181226_065513_Tushinsky%20Tri-Plex%20spoolbox%20open.JPG 
 [   Jim Miller (left) and Joseph Tushinsky
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/18/12/26/181226_065513_Tushinsky%20&%20James2.jpg 

 [ Previous MMD articles on this subject are indexed at
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/T/tushinsky.html 
 [ -- Robbie