Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
JANUARY 25, 1919
REVIEW
Wherein the Editor of This Player Section Discusses Things Economic,
Things Technical and Things of General Business Interest, Maintaining
Always That Cheerful Optimism Which Existing Trade Conditions Warrant
Soviets
The midwinter meeting of the Music Indus-
tries Chamber of Commerce will have been held
in Chicago before these lines are found in print.
We are naturally much interested in the doings
of the chamber and therefore are wondering
whether any of the delegates have really been
doing any hard thinking on one question which
of all others is being least candidly faced just
now; the question of industrial relations. In
our industry we have in a way been lucky. We
have kept out of the really big excitement of
the industrial movements of the age. Our men
have been so largely old-fashioned in the bet-
ter shops, and even elsewhere piano making is
so much a matter of individual hand skill, that
in the mass they have stood very much aloof
from industrial radicalism. The considerable
part taken by old-fashioned handcraftsmanship
in our industry does account for this aloof-
ness to a considerable extent. But we have to
face to-day situations vastly unlike anything
within past experience. We find it necessary to
realize that there exists within the community
a group of men who are not only willing but
even anxious to welcome the opening of a strug-
gle between the two great elements of so-
ciety; a struggle which can only end with the
destruction of both. Men who are considered
intelligently radical, others who call themselves
"intellectuals," are coquetting the Bolshevism;
and with revolutionary socialism, with the
Soviet as an ideal. No doubt the Soviet con-
stitutes an ideal solution; that is to say, the
ideal Soviet does. But the only Soviets we
know of in practical operation are not exactly
attractive. All business men must begin, sooner
or later, to face squarely the development of
revolutionary ideas through industrial discon-
tent and unrest. Too many are playing with
the idea for any thinking man to feel wholly
comfortable. American good sense will, we are
convinced, come out on the right side, for our
workmen are also in very large degree our
property holders, which is the saving grace of
the situation. We in the piano business are
decidedly not profiteers, to be sure, and a good
many of us are genuine proletarians. Still, we
must meet and face new conditions. We must
meet and remedy industrial discontent. The
post-war period has many problems; none is
larger than this.
or are willing, to play the player-piano by foot-
power they must also be able and willing to
learn, if only a little at a time, something about
the control of tone through pedaling. Those
who will learn this much will also learn in
due course to play the instrument tolerably
well. When all the owners of player-pianos
can play well, or at least when in each such
family there is one person who can do so, then
we shall feel that the day of the player-piano
as the home instrument par excellence, is here.
Pedals
Sixty-five Notes
One little point about the player-piano which
deserves notice is found in the fact that the
foot-driven action continues to hold the field
against all comers. A few years ago the do-
mestic electric-driven instrument had a tryout
and some of the enthusiastic ones had it all
doped out that the doom of the foot-drive had
been sounded. We have waited patiently to
see what would happen. In point of fact noth-
ing particular did happen. The electric-drive
was found to be a bit ahead of its time, and
in due course relapsed into the background.
The reproducing piano, of course, is not thought
of here, for that is something quite different.
We are referring to the ordinary player-piano
with an electric motor substituted for the foot-
pedals. Why did the public stick to the foot-
pumping? Mainly, we believe, because the im-
provement in the pedaling apparatus Has been
so steady and so continuous. Physical effort
is no longer a matter of vital interest to the
person who considers the purchase of a player-
piano. In other words, although the elimina-
tion of foot-pumping would appear, on paper, to
be a most desirable thing, we find that prac-
tically it is not sufficiently important to exert
any definite influence upon the sale of player-
pianos. This again is a cause for rejoicing, for
we feel convinced that so long as folks prefer,
Considering the very great shortage of player-
pianos which the trade experienced during the
past winter, one is inclined to ask whether
something cannot be done to rake up and put
into shape the great number of old, obsolete and
generally worn-out players of earlier days which
are now lying around the back rooms of stores
and the top floors of factories. In many cases
the old instruments are fitted into good pianos
in good condition, while the actions themselves
are often quite capable of being put into first-
class order with the aid of some replacement in
leathers, some repacking of joints, recovering of
motors, and installation of new tubing. Many
hundreds of 65-note player-pianos are still doing
duty and only recently a large dealer in music
rolls was informing me that he intends to have
a special department to look after 65-note cus-
tomers exclusively. Any roll manufacturer will
be glad enough to take care of 65-note orders if
they come in sufficient quantities. But even
without the 65-note roll, there is no difficulty in
adapting repaired 65-note players to take the
present standard 88-note roll. It is only neces-
sary to connect each of the extra ducts, eleven
in the treble and twelve in the bass, to the cor-
responding pneumatic an octave higher or
lower, as the case may be, on the 65-note action.
In this way the extra notes will be played, al-
though not strictly as written. The instruments
thus adapted must of course be sold for what
they are. But if a shortage is to be anticipated
and provided for, it does seem as if the dealers
who are shouting for player-pianos might look
a little closely at their old stock.
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It is related of a certain army officer that upon
his arrival in France he produced from his be-
longings several consignments of a guaranteed
"kill-cooties" paste, for external use only.
Wishing to be kind and good to his company,
and finding them scratching themselves vigor-
ously one day up at the front, he assembled them
when a time of relief from duty had come, and
gave the following orders: "All men who are
suffering from cooties step forward three paces.
Forward—Company, Halt!" Now if anyone
could assemble a squad of the retail dealers in
every city of the U. S. A. just now and say to
them, "Every man who suffers from excess of
demand over supply, step forward," would not
the result be manifestly the same? There is
not much doubt about it. The great cry is for
more goods to sell. There is no trouble in dis-
posing of all the player-pianos one can get hold
of by hook or by crook. We mean by this, in
case any one misunderstands, that one has to get
the goods by hook or by crook, not to sell them
by such means. Business, in a word, is de-
cidedly good, and, what is more, the terms on
which it is being done are also good.