Music Trade Review
Issue: 1922 Vol. 74 N. 5 - Page 11
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THE
FEBRUARY 4, 1922
MUSIC TRADE
11
REVIEW
OurTECHNlCAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE
THE STRINGLESS PIANO
Mr. McCarthy Talks About the Horrors of
Player-piano Maltreatment
"Dear Mr. White: I am wondering what could
take the place of our present-day piano. The
player-piano is going to stay and so is the Vic-
trola. But the way player-pianos are treated,
kept in tune, kept clean, etc., is a disgrace.
Something else should replace the strings, some-
thing that would stay in permanent tune, so that
only the player action should ever need adjust-
ing. Attempts have been made with tuning
forks, but the range is limited—about three to
five octaves. An instrument of this kind, called
the Dulcitone, is advertised as made by Thomas
Machell & Sons, Glasgow, Scotland.
"Something of this kind should be invented for
player-pianos, to resemble in appearance and
tone an ordinary piano, but at the same time to
do away with the heavy structure, while every-
thing else would remain as before. We are now
living at a time when everything is possible, so
why not talk about this now? Yours truly,
Frank McCarthy, New York, N. Y."
Mr. McCarthy need not imagine that his ideas
are without serious importance. There are, in
fact, two sides to the question, and each of
them has its own importance. In the first place,
the player-piano is, of course, a horribly
neglected instrument in most homes. Much
used, it very rapidly falls out of tune, but it is
not more frequently tuned on that account, as
every tuner well knows. The results are, of
course, musically frightful, and it may be ques-
tioned whether the trade realizes how much
harm is done to the whole music industry by this
sad state of affairs. Unkempt, neglected, out-of-
tune player-pianos abound in every town, almost
on every street. Each of them is a constant
and crying advertiser of two facts: (1) That
the piano tuners have not enough work to do,
and (2) that the people are not educated to
what music means.
All joking apart, if a player-piano were on
the market without a keyboard, with tuning-
fork vibrators and with a player mechanism
locked up out of reach, the musical results would
The Superior Ukulele Attachment
For PIANOS and PLAYER-PIANOS
DEALERS and
TUNERS
JUST WHAT YOU
HAVE BEEN LOOK-
ING FOR
8 T U D Y
T H I 8
VIEW. T H E N
WRITE
FOR FULL
DESCRIPTIVE CIRCU-
LAR AND PRICE8. IT EXPLAIN8
THE
LATEST INVENTION IN
THIS KIND OF A DEVICE. THE
BEST MADE AND I T COSTS NO
MORE.
UNDER KEYBED CONTROL FOR
STRAIGHT PIANOS. AND SPOOL-
BOX
CONTROL FOR PLAYER-
PIANOS.
SUPERIOR MFG. CO.
in and give it a regular tuning. The job can
be done in from one hour to one hour and a
half.
"But I for one will not put a piano up to
pitch without being asked to. The people in
Chicago do not want to pay an extra dollar for
the work. They do not have their pianos tuned
regularly. They have them tuned once every
year or every ten years. So 1 refuse to be the
goat. Respectfully yours, F. J. Schulze, Chi-
cago, 111."
Quite so, Brother Schulze. You are perfectly
right in refusing to be the goat. The people
emphatically do not want to pay a dollar, or
any fraction thereof, for any extra work. They
have the piano tuned only when (a) it refuses
to operate or (b) the neighbors complain. The
remedy, of course, is education, Brother Schulze,
but education is a name for a process which
is at once slow and uncertain. If you do not
believe me, brother, let your mind travel back
over the days when you were at school and an
extraordinary hodge-podge of undigestible data
was being crammed into you by the culture-
forcing machine in which you had been placed
by a wise and benevolent school board. Do you
remember learning anything about tone? Do you
recollect that any one ever got you interested in
the composition of musical sounds, or that you
ever learned one single interesting fact, of any
sort at all, regarding the secrets, the wonderful
and beautiful mysteries of music? You may
have had some so-called "public school music,"
but did that teach you anything about tone, or
tune, or pitch, or temperament, or pianos, or
fiddles, or organs? The answers to these ques-
tions are, I venture to suppose, in the negative.
And there, Brother Schulze, is the trouble.
How can you expect the people, the ordinary
PITCH RAISING
men and women of your great city or of any
Mr. Schulze Declines Justly to Be the Goat
other place, large or small, to know or care
for Stingy Folks!
whether a piano is in tune or out of tune when
they have never had the slightest opportunity in
"Dear Mr. White: I was interested in two childhood to acquire the needed knowledge to
letters from J. M. Bowman and A. D. Chalker. enable them to judge for themselves? You need
In regard to putting pianos up to pitch, there are not expect this, but if you do you will show
many good ways, but I think I have a better way. yourself to be a very sanguine person, indeed.
So I shall put in my two cents' worth, and
The National Association of Piano Tuners
here goes.
will have to agitate for a reform in education be-
"I start with the lower A string and pull that fore it can get very far with any reform of this
up to A sharp, then A sharp to B, B to C, and sort, and the music industries in general will
so on all the way up to the highest C. Then have to join in. Meanwhile, agitate!
when I get the piano up into rough tune I start
Mr. Schulze on Pitch-raising
The method for raising pitch which Mr.
Schulze outlines is, in essential, similar to the
scheme suggested by Mr. Maitland, of Phila-
VIBRATIONS GUARANTEED
delphia, some years ago, to which I have on
more than one occasion adverted. The prin-
ciple on which it is based may be easily under-
8er1es "One Seventy"
stood. The process of raising the pitch of a
A-440. Bb-466.2 and C-528.S
series of strings to the extent of, say, a semi-
(A-435 If desired)
PRICE, 60c. EACH
{Continued on page 12)
probably be less distressing than they usually
are now, despite the fact that the instrument
v/ould not in reality be any sort of a piano. I
do not in the least suppose that the consumma-
tion desired by Mr. McCarthy will be realized,
but some time, with all due respect to my tuner
friends, I wish it were within the bounds of
possibility.
Of course, the idea of a tuning-fork piano is
capable of practical application. The Dulcitone
is a very well-known instrument. Its makers, the
big music house of Machell, in the city of Glas-
gow, have been working on it for many years
and have made it perfectly successful, so far as
I know. I have had the pleasure of reading
the interesting pamphlet in which Messrs.
Machell set forth the evolution of their tuning-
fork vibrators and the striking action which they
developed for them. The Dulcitone is provided
with five octaves of tuning forks, each of which
is attached by a fine steel spring, like a piece
of fine clock-spring, to a sound board. The
action consists of a very ingenious adaptation of
the ordinary movement of the grand piano, being,
in fact, a downstriking grand action, with the
hammers reversed, under the keys, and striking
downward upon the tuning forks. The instru-
ment is small, compact and ingenious. Its tone
is harplike and quite adequate for a small room,
a camp, a yacht or for tropical countries where
ordinary pianos cannot be used.
I have seen other models of "stringless pianos,"
but have not heard of one being in actual practi-
cal use. The Dulcitone, on the other hand, is
well known abroad and much used in tropical
climates and where the ordinary piano cannot
conveniently be used.
DEAGAN TUNING FORKS
J. C. DEAGAN,
Deagan Building
1786 Bcrtean Arcane, Chicago
Here are
POLKS
BASS STRINGS
TUNING.
[SCHOOL
TUNERS
••eclal attentlea ilvca t» the needs ef the tuner and UM dealer
OTTO R. TREFZ,
Jr.
8110 Fail-mount Arena*
Philadelphia, fa.
In it's 26^year-
wWh upwards of
1OOO
SUCCESSFUL
GRADUATES
AOOIlEf •>
J COURT HOUSE SO.
VALPARAISO. IND.
LIMA, OHIO
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
Standard of America
Alumni of 2000
PUa* Toaiac, Pipe apd Reed Organ
tad Player P'UUM. Year Beek Free.
27-29 Gains boro Street
BOSTON, MASS.
The TUNER'S FRIEND
New style all leather bridle strap
BRAUNSDORF'S ALL LEATHER BRIDLE STRAPS
Labor Saving; Mouse Proof; Guaranteed all one length
Send for Samples.
Prices on Request
Felts and Cloths in any Quantities
GEO. W. BRAUNSDORF, Inc.,
Repair Parts and Tools of
Every Description
Send for New Prices
Mraunsdorf's Other Specialties
Paper, Felt and Cloth
Punchings, Fibre Washers
and Bridges for
Pianos, Organs and
Player Actions
Office and Factory:
430 East 63rd St., New York
THE
FEBRUARY 4, 1922
MUSIC TRADE
11
REVIEW
OurTECHNlCAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE
THE STRINGLESS PIANO
Mr. McCarthy Talks About the Horrors of
Player-piano Maltreatment
"Dear Mr. White: I am wondering what could
take the place of our present-day piano. The
player-piano is going to stay and so is the Vic-
trola. But the way player-pianos are treated,
kept in tune, kept clean, etc., is a disgrace.
Something else should replace the strings, some-
thing that would stay in permanent tune, so that
only the player action should ever need adjust-
ing. Attempts have been made with tuning
forks, but the range is limited—about three to
five octaves. An instrument of this kind, called
the Dulcitone, is advertised as made by Thomas
Machell & Sons, Glasgow, Scotland.
"Something of this kind should be invented for
player-pianos, to resemble in appearance and
tone an ordinary piano, but at the same time to
do away with the heavy structure, while every-
thing else would remain as before. We are now
living at a time when everything is possible, so
why not talk about this now? Yours truly,
Frank McCarthy, New York, N. Y."
Mr. McCarthy need not imagine that his ideas
are without serious importance. There are, in
fact, two sides to the question, and each of
them has its own importance. In the first place,
the player-piano is, of course, a horribly
neglected instrument in most homes. Much
used, it very rapidly falls out of tune, but it is
not more frequently tuned on that account, as
every tuner well knows. The results are, of
course, musically frightful, and it may be ques-
tioned whether the trade realizes how much
harm is done to the whole music industry by this
sad state of affairs. Unkempt, neglected, out-of-
tune player-pianos abound in every town, almost
on every street. Each of them is a constant
and crying advertiser of two facts: (1) That
the piano tuners have not enough work to do,
and (2) that the people are not educated to
what music means.
All joking apart, if a player-piano were on
the market without a keyboard, with tuning-
fork vibrators and with a player mechanism
locked up out of reach, the musical results would
The Superior Ukulele Attachment
For PIANOS and PLAYER-PIANOS
DEALERS and
TUNERS
JUST WHAT YOU
HAVE BEEN LOOK-
ING FOR
8 T U D Y
T H I 8
VIEW. T H E N
WRITE
FOR FULL
DESCRIPTIVE CIRCU-
LAR AND PRICE8. IT EXPLAIN8
THE
LATEST INVENTION IN
THIS KIND OF A DEVICE. THE
BEST MADE AND I T COSTS NO
MORE.
UNDER KEYBED CONTROL FOR
STRAIGHT PIANOS. AND SPOOL-
BOX
CONTROL FOR PLAYER-
PIANOS.
SUPERIOR MFG. CO.
in and give it a regular tuning. The job can
be done in from one hour to one hour and a
half.
"But I for one will not put a piano up to
pitch without being asked to. The people in
Chicago do not want to pay an extra dollar for
the work. They do not have their pianos tuned
regularly. They have them tuned once every
year or every ten years. So 1 refuse to be the
goat. Respectfully yours, F. J. Schulze, Chi-
cago, 111."
Quite so, Brother Schulze. You are perfectly
right in refusing to be the goat. The people
emphatically do not want to pay a dollar, or
any fraction thereof, for any extra work. They
have the piano tuned only when (a) it refuses
to operate or (b) the neighbors complain. The
remedy, of course, is education, Brother Schulze,
but education is a name for a process which
is at once slow and uncertain. If you do not
believe me, brother, let your mind travel back
over the days when you were at school and an
extraordinary hodge-podge of undigestible data
was being crammed into you by the culture-
forcing machine in which you had been placed
by a wise and benevolent school board. Do you
remember learning anything about tone? Do you
recollect that any one ever got you interested in
the composition of musical sounds, or that you
ever learned one single interesting fact, of any
sort at all, regarding the secrets, the wonderful
and beautiful mysteries of music? You may
have had some so-called "public school music,"
but did that teach you anything about tone, or
tune, or pitch, or temperament, or pianos, or
fiddles, or organs? The answers to these ques-
tions are, I venture to suppose, in the negative.
And there, Brother Schulze, is the trouble.
How can you expect the people, the ordinary
PITCH RAISING
men and women of your great city or of any
Mr. Schulze Declines Justly to Be the Goat
other place, large or small, to know or care
for Stingy Folks!
whether a piano is in tune or out of tune when
they have never had the slightest opportunity in
"Dear Mr. White: I was interested in two childhood to acquire the needed knowledge to
letters from J. M. Bowman and A. D. Chalker. enable them to judge for themselves? You need
In regard to putting pianos up to pitch, there are not expect this, but if you do you will show
many good ways, but I think I have a better way. yourself to be a very sanguine person, indeed.
So I shall put in my two cents' worth, and
The National Association of Piano Tuners
here goes.
will have to agitate for a reform in education be-
"I start with the lower A string and pull that fore it can get very far with any reform of this
up to A sharp, then A sharp to B, B to C, and sort, and the music industries in general will
so on all the way up to the highest C. Then have to join in. Meanwhile, agitate!
when I get the piano up into rough tune I start
Mr. Schulze on Pitch-raising
The method for raising pitch which Mr.
Schulze outlines is, in essential, similar to the
scheme suggested by Mr. Maitland, of Phila-
VIBRATIONS GUARANTEED
delphia, some years ago, to which I have on
more than one occasion adverted. The prin-
ciple on which it is based may be easily under-
8er1es "One Seventy"
stood. The process of raising the pitch of a
A-440. Bb-466.2 and C-528.S
series of strings to the extent of, say, a semi-
(A-435 If desired)
PRICE, 60c. EACH
{Continued on page 12)
probably be less distressing than they usually
are now, despite the fact that the instrument
v/ould not in reality be any sort of a piano. I
do not in the least suppose that the consumma-
tion desired by Mr. McCarthy will be realized,
but some time, with all due respect to my tuner
friends, I wish it were within the bounds of
possibility.
Of course, the idea of a tuning-fork piano is
capable of practical application. The Dulcitone
is a very well-known instrument. Its makers, the
big music house of Machell, in the city of Glas-
gow, have been working on it for many years
and have made it perfectly successful, so far as
I know. I have had the pleasure of reading
the interesting pamphlet in which Messrs.
Machell set forth the evolution of their tuning-
fork vibrators and the striking action which they
developed for them. The Dulcitone is provided
with five octaves of tuning forks, each of which
is attached by a fine steel spring, like a piece
of fine clock-spring, to a sound board. The
action consists of a very ingenious adaptation of
the ordinary movement of the grand piano, being,
in fact, a downstriking grand action, with the
hammers reversed, under the keys, and striking
downward upon the tuning forks. The instru-
ment is small, compact and ingenious. Its tone
is harplike and quite adequate for a small room,
a camp, a yacht or for tropical countries where
ordinary pianos cannot be used.
I have seen other models of "stringless pianos,"
but have not heard of one being in actual practi-
cal use. The Dulcitone, on the other hand, is
well known abroad and much used in tropical
climates and where the ordinary piano cannot
conveniently be used.
DEAGAN TUNING FORKS
J. C. DEAGAN,
Deagan Building
1786 Bcrtean Arcane, Chicago
Here are
POLKS
BASS STRINGS
TUNING.
[SCHOOL
TUNERS
••eclal attentlea ilvca t» the needs ef the tuner and UM dealer
OTTO R. TREFZ,
Jr.
8110 Fail-mount Arena*
Philadelphia, fa.
In it's 26^year-
wWh upwards of
1OOO
SUCCESSFUL
GRADUATES
AOOIlEf •>
J COURT HOUSE SO.
VALPARAISO. IND.
LIMA, OHIO
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
Standard of America
Alumni of 2000
PUa* Toaiac, Pipe apd Reed Organ
tad Player P'UUM. Year Beek Free.
27-29 Gains boro Street
BOSTON, MASS.
The TUNER'S FRIEND
New style all leather bridle strap
BRAUNSDORF'S ALL LEATHER BRIDLE STRAPS
Labor Saving; Mouse Proof; Guaranteed all one length
Send for Samples.
Prices on Request
Felts and Cloths in any Quantities
GEO. W. BRAUNSDORF, Inc.,
Repair Parts and Tools of
Every Description
Send for New Prices
Mraunsdorf's Other Specialties
Paper, Felt and Cloth
Punchings, Fibre Washers
and Bridges for
Pianos, Organs and
Player Actions
Office and Factory:
430 East 63rd St., New York
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