16
PRESTO
ENGLISH PLAYER
SELLS AT $40
New Portable Device Made to Retail at Very
Moderate Retail Price Will Stimulate
Sale of Music Rolls, Says English
Trade Journal.
"The player-piano industry in this country has had
but a stunted growth. The intricacy of the action
design, making its production a costly thing, has
precluded its sale in anything like the quantities
which would have ensured a profitable native pro-
duction. That, at any rate, we believe to be the
principal reason," says the London Music Trades
Review.
"In America, keenly worked out methods of stand-
ardization have enabled the manufacturers there to
compete successfully with practically every other
country, and today nearly every English make of
importance incorporates an American action. Even
so, when we consider the possibilities of the player
as a interpretative medium, we are bound to admit
the slowness of sale. There is a fortune to be made
by the company producing an instrument within the
reach of the man in the street."
It was with the greatest interest that this London
trade journal learned of a mass production system,
for about £8, and which is described at length in
its issue of May IS. J. Wearham is the inventor and
his invention is protected by two English patents and
foreign patents based thereon.
The Player Described.
Describing the new piano-player, the London Music
Trades Review says:
"It has as its chief object the provision of a player
capable of mass production and sale at a price low
enough to be within the reach of the majority of those
who possess pianos and cannot play or afford a
player-piano, and should also appeal to those un-
willing to exchange their instruments for a player-
piano. In addition, it provides a light weight player
which can be carried in a case, together with spare
music rolls, and immediately placed in operative at-
tachment on any standard 85- or 88-note keyboard.
This feature should particularly appeal to those
gifted for interpretation rather than for technical per-
formance, as it would enable them to render their
favorite works on any playable piano at any place.
It should also appeal to the amateur singer unable
to accompany, or obtain accompaniment, for his
songs.
"The apparatus is of the type which operates di-
rectly upon the keyboard. The usual pedal pneumatic
system is dispensed with; the pneumatic motor at
present used for driving the take-up spool also goes,
and in its place is substituted direct-friction drive
from the hand-operated mechanism; finally, the large
pneumatics at present necessary for operating the
damper action are also eliminated, as the so-called
loud and soft pedals are free to be used in the ordi-
nary way. The result of these eliminations is that
the whole of the mechanism can be assembled within
a very small space over the keys, thus bringing the
pneumatic player within the possibility of complete
mass production. It is provisionally estimated that
these attachments could be manufactured in this way
for about £8 each.
Little Skill Required.
"The means provided here consists of two velvet-
lined plates upon which the performer's hands rest;
the hands are kept in position by arching the palms
so that the knuckles press against a velvet-padded
bridge-piece across the plates. These plates are
mounted upon cranks and are also capable of rota-
tion about their own axes. The right hand plate
drives the tune sheet and a pneumatic exhausting
system, while the left hand plate, which is indepen-
dent, drives another section of the exhausting system
only; the left hand can therefore be slipped out for
turning over printed scores, which one may be fol-
lowing, without interruption. No lever is required
for the tempo control because the tune sheet, being
directly coupled to the right hand plate, moves at
speeds instantaneously and exactly corresponding to
the rotational movement given to the plate. A smooth
drive is, of course, essential, and this is effected by
the insertion of a specially designed cam for driving
the pneumatic feeders. The forte control is, as usual,
divided into an upper and lower section, and the
rotation of the plates about their axes controls the
pressure of their respective sections, each plate being
provided with a scale and pointer reading from pp
to ff. The inventor claims that these methods of
control will be more naturally responsibe to the per-
former's feelings than any method hitherto adopted.
It is further claimed that the mode of operation will
so resemble the ordinary playing of a full chord
passage that a much more pianistic appearance will
be presented by the performer's movements than can
be obtained from the foot-operated players.
"The player will be an 85-note instrument, so that
it can be attached to the predominating seven-octave
piano, ft will attach to the 88-note piano by means
of an extensible bridge piece, and will be applicable
to both horizontal and upright types of piano. It
will be automatic in adjustment for varying heights
of end-blocks, between which it is clamped, and all
supports will be heavily felted to prevent any pos-
sible abrasion of the end-blocks. A governor-con-
trolled tempo scale is provided so that the performer,
during the passage of the first blank paper over the
tracker bar, can attain the correct speed as indicated
on the tunesheet.
Can Be Folded.
"The other specifications constitute practically a
master patent for a player that can be folded, col-
lapsed or otherwise divided into sections for the pur-
poses of portability. By thus dividing the player at
a suitable point and with a suitable air-tight joint,
the player and spare rolls can be packed into a
container about the size of a suitcase, and with
skeleton construction in aluminium and wood wher-
ever possible, it is estimated that the total weight
can be kept down to about 10 pounds.
"Apart from the special features briefly described
above, the general principles of the player follow
standard pneumatic practice. Automatic tracking and
themodizing will be used, and the inventor assures
us that the playing effort on the plates will be re-
markably small on account of the elimination of the
large motors which are necessary for the foot-blown
player; the actual work, in fact, should only be a
little greater than the small theoretical work which
is being accomplished, i.e., piano playing.
"To our mind there is not the slightest doubt that
the marketing of an efficient portable player, with a
pianistic means of operation, selling at about £20,
say, on the instalment system, would result in a great
trade of almost unlimited possibilities, not only from
the sale of players, but also from the big trade in
rolls which would follow."
MEXICO CITY FIRM SELLS
NEW BRINKERHOFF LINE
Casa Alenicana De Musica Is One of the Most Pro-
gressive Exclusive Music Houses.
The success of the Casa Alenicana De Musica, ex-
clusive music store of Mexico City, Mexico, may be
attributed to Robert Leinze and E. F. Holschneider,
proprietors, who have shown foresight in selecting
the line of merchandise which they have forcefully
brought before the public.
The capable management of the music store has
accorded it a business unparalleled in the Latin re-
BJ 1
June 20, 1925.
The Best Yet
Graceful lines, rugged construc-
tion, moderately priced. It's the
very best commercial piano from
every standpoint.
Style 32—4 ft. 4 in.
WESER
Pianos and Players
Sell Readily—Stay Sold
Send to-day for catalogue, prices and
details of our liberal financing plan
Weser Bros., Inc.
520 to 528 W. 43rd St., New York
GRAND PIANOS
EXCLUSIVELY
One Style—One Quality
giving you the
-
BRINKERHOFF BOOSTERS.
public. Carrying a stock varying from the smallest
necessary in music to the largest, it has won the
confidence of a fine class of customers.
The Brinkerhoff line occupies an important place
in the warerooms of the store and is popular with the
good class of customers on the list of the Mexico
City firm.
The accompanying photograph shows a Brinker-
hoff traveler with the proprietors of the store. From
left to right they are, W. L. Lanz, Brinkerhoff trav-
eler; Robert Leinze and E. F. Holschneider, pro-
prietors.
A DEBUTANTE'S COMMENT.
Debutante is all stirred up over the remark of A.
G. Gulbransen at the Music Trades Convention at
the Drake, writes Richard Henry Little in his Line
O' Type or Two column in the Chicago Tribune:
"If a well bred person understood what jazz said,
he would run from the room." "I must say," com-
ments Debutante, "as a modern girl of a certain in-
formed innocence and moving in a circle of society
that is sometimes called the Four Hundred and is
regarded as well bred, I feel quite sure that jazz
would have to make a pretty raw crack to cause any
well bred person to gitthell outten there nowadays."
You said it, Deb, you said it!
NEW OKLAHOMA BRANCH.
The Martin Brothers Piano Company of Springfield,
Mo., will open a new music store in Blackwell, Okla.
F. E. Brandenburg, representing the company, was
in Blackwell last week completing arrangements for
installing the stock of pianos and other musical
goods.
Unequaled Grand
•t
Unequaled Price
Already being sold by leading dealers
throughout the country
Write today—tell us your next year's re-
quirements and we will meet your demands
with prompt and efficient service.
Nordlund Grand Piano Co.
400 W. Erie St.
CHICAGO
KREITER
The Leading and Most Popular
Pianos and Players
Grands, Players, Uprights and
Reproducing Pianos
The Results of Over Forty Years'
of Experience.
Kreiter Pianos Cover the Entire Line
and no Piano Dealer who tries these in-
struments would supplant them by any
others. A trial will convince.
Kreiter Mfg. Co., Inc.
310-312 W. Water St., Milwaukee, Wis.
Factory: Marinette, Wis.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/