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THE MUSIC TRADE
JANUARY 28, 1922
11
REVIEW
Interesting Discussion on the Subject of Tracker Bars Brought About
by a Letter From a Tuner in Southern California Who Has Had to Solve
Some of the Repair Problems Which Beset the Player-piano in the Home
The remarks which follow are prompted by a
letter which the Player Section Editor has re-
ceived from a well-known tuner and player re-
pairman of California. The questions which this
gentleman puts are particularly apt at the pres-
ent time, and our answer will set forth some
facts which ought to be understood and appre-
ciated by all factory men who are engaged in
the player business.
The letter was evidently written when the
writer had very recently been suffering from
some of the annoyances which come to repair-
men in dealing with any of the innumerable
troubles which beset the player-piano in the
home. It will, therefore, be understood in that
sense, and factory men will please adopt a sym-
pathetic attitude.
65-Note vs. 88-Note
"Dear Sir:—Why do not the player manufac-
turers either go back to the old sixty-five-note
player or else get together and make the music
roll and tracker bar longer? You know, they
started by crowding eighty-eight notes into the
space formerly allotted to a sixty-five-note scale,
and then added four holes more for the tracking
device, with another long hole for the automatic
sustaining pedal. For the reproducing piano
they even have to cut out now some of the notes
at each extreme to allow for the marginal ex-
pression perforations.
"Now, with the old sixty-five-note scale we
did not have any automatic tracking device, for
it did not matter if the paper did shift over a
little bit to one side or the other. Moreover,
we had a larger bleed, which did not choke up
easily. Nowadays, if a fly happens to walk over
a bleed while you have the action apart, you are
out of luck if you have not beetl watching. I
think that the reproducing piano is wonderful,
but considering its price it ought to give good
service for years without much added expense
to the owner. So it would, too, if the points I
III
have mentioned were better looked after. Re-
spectfully,
David Spence.
"Tuner and Repairman, Santa Barbara, Cal."
Some Needed Admissions
Factory men, not to mention salesmen and re-
tail merchants, have gradually drifted into the
habit of thinking that the outside tuner or re-
pairman is a mechanical crank who is always
looking for trouble, and who never likes to ad-
mit that any difficulty may have been with
himself and not with the instrument. But occa-
sionally, anyway, it will pay the gentlemen of
the manufacturing and selling branches of the
industry to admit that a tuner may have, in con-
ceivable circumstances, reason for his complaints.
And it happens that Mr. Spence has laid his
finger upon a weak, a very weak, spot in the
present technical position of the player-piano
industry. The point to which he refers is very
interesting, and the more so, perhaps, for hav-
ing been rather unduly neglected in the past.
Not with any expectation of evoking an imme-
diate reform, but in the more humble hope of
arousing some discussion and stimulating some
thought, let us examine the complaint and try to
see what there really is to it.
barely sufficient. Those who wonder why so
many player-pianos do not play well on very
light pumping may find a hint here.
Automatic tracking devices are necessities with
a nine-to-the-inch scale, but they were not neces-
sary to the old sixty-five-note tracker. If we did
not have them, if we were not obliged to have
some sort of regulating device, whether auto-
matically or personally controlled, for taking up
the inevitable slight shifting of the paper, every-
body would be much happier. If it were not so
easy for the slightest trace of paper dust or
lint finding its way down the tracker duct, to
spoil the repetition of a note, every manufac-
turer would have fewer complaints before him.
Every dealer would save money. Every tuner
would save time, trouble and temper. So, when
we come to think seriously about it we must
see that this complaint, whatever else it may
be, cannot fairly be dismissed as having to-day
no practical interest.
The Telephone Parallel
Can anything be done about it? Once it is ad-
mitted—and it surely must be admitted—that the
statement here made is well founded, and that
in consequence the design of the player-piano
In the first place, it might as well be acknowl- in all its forms is defective at one of its most
edged that the nine-to-the-inch scale of the important points, then surely it must also be
eighty-eight-note player-piano does certainly give admitted that we cannot go on forever content
a good deal of trouble. It might as well be ad- with such a state of affairs. Of course, as a
mitted now, before we go any further, that the practical man, the writer is perfectly well aware
old sixty-five-note scale with its six holes to that the player industry is deeply committed
the linear inch gave a great deal less trouble to the present tracker scale—committed in
in the way of tracking, of blocked bleeds and of money, in design, in patterns, in methods of pro-
other matters of the kind. Whatever else we duction—and that if any change comes about it
may say about the matter, that much we must can only come gradually. For the time being
say. It is likewise true that the present eighty- it will be quite enough if one can secure assent
eight-note scale is very much crowded on the to the general proposition that it is not neces-
tracker bar, that the bleeds are so small that it sary forever to hold on to a defective method
is very hard to keep them clear, and that the or system merely because it will take a long
quantity of air which can be admitted under time to change it. The Bell Telephone System
the pouches does not appear to be more than of the United States some years ago became con-
vinced that the traffic needs of the future would
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in the existing central station practice. Experi-
(Continucd on page 12)
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