Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MARCH 29, 1919
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
^^
Despite the Rapid Development Which Has Brought the Player-Piano of To-
day to Its Present State of Perfection, There Still Remain to Be Solved Many
Important Technical Problems Before Absolute Perfection Can Be Obtained
The extraordinary popularity of the player-
piano at the present day is one of the most in-
teresting and significant facts in the development
of the music industries, as well as of the musical
taste of the American people. A few years ago
the popularity of the foot-driven instrument at
any rate was becoming seriously doubted, and
a period was being set to its existence by more
than one enthusiastic prophet. Those were the
days, just before the war, when the so-called
"parlor electric" was being brought out. We
were being told then that the one thing the pub-
lic did not like was the foot-pumping, and that
until this was abolished absolutely and wholly
the player-piano would not be fit to serve as the
great American musical instrument.
Yet the
facts have completely contradicted these con-
fident predictions. The foot-driven player-piano
has, in fact, remained in possession of the field
and has virtually driven out all competitors
which have tried to meet it on its own terms.
The reproducing piano, indeed, is a great and
formidable rival, but a rival whose path does
not cross that of its humbler but more numerous
prototype. Tt is a rivalry in the comparative
musical sense, but it is not in any sense a com-
mercial opposition.
The designer of player actions should not,
however, feel, for any such reason as this, that
he is in a position to rest on his laurels. The
technical problems which he has to meet are
still many and complex. The success he has
achieved in meeting others as formidable does
not justify him in the supposition that there is
no more to be learned or done. There is much
more to be done and to be learned.
To Be Learned
Let us first look at some of the things which
are to be learned.
One of them undoubtedly is that the single-
valve action has ceased to be an experiment and
is now in the only less difficult position of be-
coming popular.
This means, therefore, that
more and more is being expected of this type
ot action, which is only another way of saying
that in point of technical design there is not the
margin for error which the older types per-
mitted. A single-valve action has simply got
to be completely and absolutely right, or else
it ceases to be of significance to the trade.
Another thing to be learned is that the bel-
lows-system of the player action can really be
made to work powerfully and easily at one and
the same time. The craze for elaborate loading
of the pumping apparatus with equalizers ought
to be recognized by now as having definitely
passed. It is high time that designers came to
understand that the public have finally become
accustomed to irregular pedaling and are no
longer wholly determined to pedal the player
as they would walk a tread-mill. This means
that the bellows-system of to-day can be light-
ened of its present excessive equalized load
and thereby the pumpers may be reduced in size,
whilst the springing may likewise be made
lighter and the physical effort of pedaling re-
duced without loss of efficiency. The design-
ers, in a word, must become aware that the
public have learned something about player
management during the last few years.
Still another thing to be learned is the abso-
lute necessity for working out the details of
design so as to afford greater facility for re-
pair. The player-piano is nowadays an uni-
versal instrument, it is true, so that tuners and
repairmen are better instructed than ever be-
fore, but that does not justify the continuance
of methods which might have been excusable
during the early days but are now wholly obso-
lete. Design which permits sticky valves, or*
their horizontal placement where vertical posi-
tion is anywhere possible, design which makes
any important part inaccessible or even hard to
roach, design which anywhere prevents the re-
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The valve unit that made the player famous"
pairman from doing good clean work, is wholly
inexcusable at this late day. That such design
must be improved is another lesson to learn.
To Be Done
Likewise there are some things to be done,
and that without delay.
One says it without aporogies, but with many
regrets. There is improvement needed, very
much needed, in respect of much workmanship
now being turned out. One is very much in-
clined to doubt the enduring powers of some of
the actions which are now going through the
piano factories. The use of inferior, or at least
untried, skins for pouches, miserliness in respect
of hard wood, the idea that the use of a lot of
shellac will make up for inaccurate fitting of
tubes to their channels; these and many other
points are worthy of attention. Supply prices
are up very high indeed, and labor has been as
scarce as it has been incompetent. But what
we must excuse we need not expect to be re-
peated, a:;;l so we may take it as a fair hope that
during 1919 and 1920 we shall get back to a
higher level of workmanship and material.
Uniformities
In fact, all that should be said just now in
respect of the things to be done is more or
less concerned with the question of workman-
ship or of material in one form or another. The
player actions of to-day no longer present such
extraordinary differences as they used to. There
was a time when the greatest asset a manufac-
turer could have was the ability to announce
something absolutely new. Now the absolutely
new has ceased to charm and we find ourselves
much more wanting the absolutely satisfactory.
Would it not then be an awfully good thing if
the designers of player actions could agree upon
standard sizes for piano cases? One truly be-
lieves that with a very little getting together the
slight differences now existing might be com-
promised. We heard the other day from the
superintendent of a large Western factory that
he had been able to cut down the depth of his
backs enough to reduce his player cases to the
depth of the ordinary piano, by the expedient
of making up for decreased depth by increased
breadth. If this is possible, then what we have
suggested is possible, too.
We are entering upon a new and great era
of expansion and development. The two terms
are not necessarily convertible. We might ex-
pand without rightly developing, but in that case
our expansion will not last long. It is now our
business to realize that as we expand commer-
cially we must develop technically, for unless
the processes are parallel we shall have future
commercial disappointments not now antici-
pated.
PATENTS PNEUMATIC ACTION
00®
The new "Amphion Accessible Action" is the last word in scientific player
achievement. It has the complete valve action assembled in a "Demountable
Unit'' giving instant accessibility.
AMPHIONfmCTIONS
SYRACUSE
—Your Guarantee
NEW YORK
WASHINGTON. 1). C, March 24.—A pneumatic
action for musical instruments has just been
patented by Willis E. Austin, Minneapolis.
Minn., Patent No. 1,295,672.
This invention relates to a pneumatic action
for organs and other wind instruments and the
object of the invention is to provide a pneu-
matically operated motor for controlling the
mechanism of the instrument which will be posi-
tive and reliable in its action, easily accessible,
and removable for substitution or repairs, and
which will dispense entirely with the ordinary
bellows pneumatic and pouch action or control
incidental to a pneumatically operated musical
instrument.