Hello All,  I've started the new year by taking down cartons of piano
rolls that I've never played since purchase in 1962.  That was when
I looked into a garage in upstate New York and saw a gigantic Solotone
player and some 250 rolls (they were old then).  The owner asked me
for $35 for the lot and I've had it all ever since.  Meanwhile I've
purchased eight other players -- I guess I found my lifetime hobby
that day.

I am impressed with how almost all rolls that I've tested recently
work so well, considering the journey they've taken.  When I couldn't
transport the boxes south, a friend stored them in his unheated and
un-cooled attic for years.  As they all sat on their ends for all that
time (a mistake), I detect a tendency for the paper to wander across
the tracker bar.  Gently guiding the paper on rewind repeatedly and
storing the boxes flat seems to help.  Other rolls do tear easily.

A piano roll is an amazing invention -- it's easy to store in a
dust-proof environment (its box), made of common materials, easy for
us to repair -- it has surely stood the test of time.

Tom Sendall
Piney River, Virginia