Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
9
The Present Situation and the Demand for Changes Will Be Taken Up
and Discussed Thoroughly at the Meeting of the Executive Committees
of the National Piano Associations to Be Held in New York in February.
As will be remembered, F. W. Teeple, of the
Price & Teeple Piano Co., entered last month a
very strong plea for the calling of a conference of
player-piano manufacturers, dealers and music roll
cutters for the purpose of adopting some line of
action which shall have for its object the elimina-
$on of present abuses in connection with the rolls
now being cut for use with power-driven player-
pianos. So important is this matter and so much
interest has been attracted by Mr. Teeple's remarks
that we find it necessary and desirable to direct
attention to it again.
In about eight weeks from date there will assem-
ble in New York the executive committees of the
National Piano Manufacturers' Association and of
the National Association of Piano Merchants.
These committees will meet simultaneously, and at
the same time there will be present various gentle-
men representing the supply trades, the music roll
cutters and the tuners, all of whom expect finally
to take common action regarding the formation of
the Amalgamated Music Trade Chamber of Com-
merce, as proposed recently by Paul B. Klugh. It
is quite plain, therefore, that all conditions will be
favorable for the discussion, whether formally or
only casually, of the question raised by Mr. Teeple
and of the remedies for the serious faults 'he
points out.
Mr. Klugh, who is a manufacturer both of player-
pianos and music rolls, and whose company, in ad-
dition, is a large retailer, and whose interests there-
fore, are inclusive, fully approves the principle of
Mr. Teeple's suggestion, and has stated to a repre-
sentative of this paper that he thinks much good
might come from a rediscussion of the technical
music roll situation. There is reason to believe
that the principal officials of the two national asso-
ciations in the trade are of similar opinion.
Now, what is the thing to be done? Briefly, the
situation is that there has come on the market a
type of player-piano in which the bellows are
power-driven, or at least in which an auxiliary
power-driven device is worked into the bellows
system, for use or not as desired. When the power-
driven device is used the services of the human
performer are not required, for although the con-
trol of phrasing and expression may be done nat-
urally, it is understood quite clearly that this is
not likely to be the rule, and that, per contra,
most people will prefer to allow the entire control
to be done automatically. Hence, it is necessary
to provide special perforations in the rolls used
with such players so that the stop and start, the
sustaining pedal control, the soft pedal control and
the accents, if such are provided for, may be op-
erated by pneumatic boxes controlled through the
perforations aforesaid. Hence, again, the tracker
bars of such players must be provided with cor-
responding additional ducts, for the purpose of co-
acting with the roll perforations.
It is therefore, in the general interest of the
trade, highly desirable, if not actually essential,
that an agreement should be had between all man-
ufacturers of rolls and power-driven player-
pianos whereby the positions of the controlling per-
forations, in relation to one another and to the
body of the rolls and tracker bars, should be fixed
and denned, to the end that hereafter the manu-
facturers of music rolls may make up their goods
in the certainty that the same will fit all power-
driven player-pianos, and that the manufacturers
of the latter may have the similar assurance that
all rolls will fit their instruments.
We venture the remark that, as a matter of trade
sanity, convenience and efficiency, there is nothing
to be said against, and everything to be said for,
such a proposal.
Again, it is well known that an effort was made
last spring at the trade conventions in Chicago to
perfect the organization of an association of music
Toll cutters; and also that this organization has
not yet been perfected. It seems to us that,, in the
event of the proposed amalgamation being carried
through, it will be necessary for the roll cutters
to be represented in an organization of their own,
although, of course, in one sense of the term they
are all supply men and belong in the supply men's
association. However, since an effort has been
made, and not yet abandoned, to form an associa-
tion of music roll cutters, it looks as if the pro-
posed conference would impart just the impetus
needed to carry that scheme through.
We have made a number of inquiries directed
towards the end of discovering whether opposition
would be likely to develop towards any proposal
of this sort, and we are unable to find that there is
any such probability. Thus, it seems that Mr.
Teeple should be able, without difficulty, to secure
sufficient attention to any call he may send out to
secure a gratifying response.
Moreover, it is a well-known fact that music roll
manufacturers have not kept always with perfect
fidelity to the resolutions adopted at the 88-note roll
conferences in Buffalo and Chicago. The slips
from uniformity that have been recorded are not
perhaps always very serious, but every little change
in a roll width, in a flange dimension, or in some
technical detail of lay-out, is a change uncalled for
and in some way destructive of the efficiency of the
player on which the roll is used. At the proposed
conference it seems that much could be done in the
way of a restatement of these resolutions and a
determination to keep to them.
We therefore sincerely hope that the conference
on standardizing rolls for power-driven players
will get together next February and accomplish all
the good it may, can and should achieve.
GROWTH OF THEJPLAYER BUSINESS
& Sons and other instruments, has been featuring
the player phase of its business in its newspaper
advertising of late. .Under the heading of "Impor-
tant Action Information," the company, in an ad-
vertisement featuring its own player and the ex-
ceptionally strong and durable action it contains,
says in part:
"The works of a piano are just as important as
the works of a watch or automobile. A piano action
contains five lines of 88 notes each, totaling 440
center bearings or working parts which were for-
merly made of wood, including the main rails. The
Bransfield-Billings action contains steel angle rails
with 440 spring brass flanges, machine screwed to
the angle rails. No other action made will with-
stand the extra heavy playing required from player-
pianos. This wonderful action is a further im-
provement above the well-known one-line Billings
action. Our statement guaranteed or money re-
funded. Satisfied customers our only agents."
In Milwaukee Has Been Most Marked During
the Past Year—Figures Eighty-five Per Cent,
of Bradford Business—Billings Publicity.
(Special to The Review.)
MILWAUKEE, WIS., December 21.—An example of
the remarkable growth of the player business in the
past few years is shown in the statement just made
by an official of the J. B. Bradford Piano Co.,
handling the Mason & Hamlin, Sohmer, Shoninger,
Cable, Melville Clark. Cable Company and Price &
Teeple lines, that the player sales made by this
house during the past year totaled almost 85 per
cent, of its entire business. This is all the more
expressive when it is stated that the total Bradford
business for the year reached a new high mark.
The Billings & Sons Piano Co., 504 Grand ave-
nue, featuring the Mehlin, Cable-Nelson, Billings
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