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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
T H E P O I N T OF VIEW—(Continued from page 5).
moving any part of the pneumatic machinery.
Every year more and more players are built in
this way, but there
are still many which
c a n n o t be handled
well without taking
out the entire top ac-
tion. I wish that the
men in the factory
who m a k e players
w o u l d consider the
interests of the tuner
a little and make his
W. H. Ronzheimer.
work t h a t m u c h
easier. Tuners would take more quickly to the
player if they saw that their interests were con-
sidered.
down as optimistic about public taste for the
player. People are taking to it more and more all
the time, and soon there will be no real cause for
complaint.
I am much interested in the question of teaching
tuners the facts about player mechanism. There is
no doubt that education is greatly needed. For my
part, I am convinced that a technical school of
some sort is needed in every great piano center.
Factories are not the places to learn pneumatics.
Factories have no time anyway, and still less in-
clination, to teach. Their business is to make.
Moreover, a mere practical smattering is nothing.
What is wanted is a thorough grounding in the
scientific principles of player construction first, and
then a course of training in practical repair work
and regulation should follow. I should like to see
a school for tuners in Chicago, and believe that this
is the only way in which tuners can ever be trained
to understand the player rightly. Tuners must
have this training somehow, and only a school
rightly conducted can give it to them.
What Frederick E. Kaeser, Principal Repairman for the M. Schulz Co.,
Chicago, Says :
If I could control the manufacture of players I
would insist that the first thing to be done was to
Another thing that ought to be considered is the provide easy pumping. One constant complaint on
the part of piano player
accessibility of valves. I should like to see all
owners is that the pump-
players so built that it would be possible to re-
ing is too hard. 1 con-
move a single valve by itself, adjust it and put it
sider
stiff pumping to be
back without taking down the whole business.
a distinct mechanical de-
Some players are already made this way, and I
fect in the player of to-
wish all were.
day, and one that should
Personally I think that the double valve system
be remedied.
has one great advantage over the single in that
In regard to remedying
dust, dirt and lint do not have so bad an effect
this di-fiTt, I can only say
on repetition with a double valve player. This is
that the pedal leverage in
because the particles which are drawn in through
many players could be
the tracker cannot do any damage to the double
changed,
with advantage
valve player except in the primary valve, which
Fred'k E. Kaeser.
to the mechanism and
need not open far to operate the secondary all
right. The secondary, which operates the pneu- to the performer. But when we come to consider
this matter of ease in pumping, we must also re-
matic, is protected from harm.
As to the attitude of the public towards the member that many pneumatic actions are not tight
player-piano, I can only say that I find their taste enough. When this is so pumping will be hard
anyway. Tightness in action building, as I see it,
to be gradually but surely improving. More and
more people seem to want to play their players is largely a matter of the right sort of lumber,
well. Taste in music, too, seems to be improving shellac and leather. The troubles that develop in
all round, and there is no reason to believe that players under usage are generally to be traced
this will not go on for an indefinite time. One to defects in these materials or in the way they
thing that strikes me is that the salesmen are neg- are put together. Pneumatics and valves seldom
lectful in not teaching people how to play their give any trouble whatever. But one great trouble
instruments before they are set up in the home. I is found in the drying out of actions through over-
am continually finding that owners of players really heating. I should like to see a card of instruc-
have not the least idea how to get good effects tions permanently fixed on every player-piano
from them and, in fact, do not even know that warning against overheating.
such effects can be had. All this could be im-
Owners of player-pianos also ought to be warned
proved if the salesmen would take the trouble to against spilling oil over wooden moving parts, es-
instruct people rightly.
pecially in the motor. This often makes trouble.
What is also to the point, tuners ought to be
Another thing I notice is that public prejudice
against the player is very largely the result of the considered, so that they will not have to remove
bad playing that is heard everywhere. People get the pneumatic action every time they want to tune.
a player-piano next to them in an apartment house A good many players, of course, are made to-day
and hear it banged away from morning to night. so that they can be tuned without disturbing the
Naturally, they acquire the notion that all player- spool box or the motor. But others are hard to
pianos are necessarily as mechanical as that one, tune unless the motor, anyway, is removed, and I
and they reckon that if their neighbors, who are in- find that tuners often are careless in replacing
telligent people, can do no better with their player, motors, so that something is thrown out of adjust-
nobody else can. So they condemn the whole ment and trouble comes right along. If manufac-
thing. I am constantly seeing examples of this turers would ask the opinion of tuners on these
state of feeling. The dealers and salesmen ought matters it would be better for everybody.
As for the public, I want to tell you that it be-
to realize these facts and act accordingly.
Generally speaking, however, you may put me lieves in them more and more. People, it seems to
me, really want to learn how to play their player-
pianos. They soon get tired of the cheap music
they got in the beginning and want something
better. 1 would favor any plan for facilitating
the exchange of music, and also would be in favor
of carrying on a systematic service to all owners,
so that an expert could be sent to the home, every
so often during the first year simply to instruct.
I am constantly being called on to instruct owners,
and they are always very grateful for any help I
can give them. Such a service is a big help
towards making the player-piano satisfactory.
Public taste in music is improving all the time,
and the player-piano is to be credited with this.
People soon get tired of rag when they can have it
all the time, and if an effort were made systemati-
cally to instruct and encourage peoj.le in playing
many more players would be sold. People, gen-
erally speaking, are only too glad to play well if
they can. I believe in encouraging them, and I
believe also that the public attitude towards the
player is improving all the time. I see the people
in their homes and hear many things that never
would be heard by a piano man otherwise.
You ask me about teaching tuners? Well,
tuners must be taught the ins and outs of the
player. There is no question about that. But just
how to do it is another thing. I am myself a fac-
tory man and prejudiced naturally in favor of the
factory.
But I can easily see that a factory is not the
place for study. I learned the necessity'for right
methods in study when taking a course of physics
in a technical school. Here I saw how the labora-
tory work and the lectures supplemented each
other, so that the practical facts were presented in
connection with their scientific explanation. That
is the right way to learn anything. You cannot
teach tuners to be good player men by merely giv-
ing them a little practical smattering of "things to
do in case of emergency." If you just do this,
then they only know what to do for this one spe-
cial player that you have used to demonstrate with.
That is of little use. We must have a foundation
of solid theory; the hard and fast principles of
pneumatics. And that means a school. I am in
favor of a technical school for tuners, and I think
that every tuner ought to be compelled in some
way to attend it.
(~XF the pianos that you repair, do you ever
^ ^ have to renew a set of Schmidt ham-
mers because of WEAR?
One department in the Schmidt factory does nothing but
make new sets, and of the old hammers sent to guide the boring
angle but few have the name Schmidt.
This leads us to believe that Schmidt ham-
mers of German felt wear well
DAVID
H. SCHMIDT
CO., Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
Western representatives: Widney & Widney,
5 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, 111.