1930's WURLITZER

[Frederick G Scoles]

On Fri, 2 Aug 1996, William Bailer wrote:

>
> On Thu, 1 Aug 1996 Wimblees@aol.com wrote:
>
> > Cliff:
> >
> > I have a small Wurlitzer grand that has pins set directly in the plate, No
> > pin block. All the pins are force driven into the iron plate webbing ...
> I agree, it is a nice design, but the Wegman method is even more elegant
> and much cheaper!  Wegmans were made in Auburn NY, very near here
> (Rochester), so we see a few in this area.  The Wurlitzer may have been a
> very short production experiment, I don't know, but it certainly does work
> well.
>
Since some technicians I've talked with do not like to tune or pitch
raise the Wegmans (hammer technique is a little different since the
Wegman has the pin sitting in the vertically oblong hole in the plate
web) I would like to offer my 2 cents.  My area, being near Auburn,
Syracuse, Rochester, etc.,  has a good number of Wegmans.  The tuning
time for a good Wegman takes no longer than any other brand, and they
seem to have excellent tuning stability.  Also, destringing and removing
all the pins from a Wegman takes less than 10 minutes since all the pins
fall out of the web after string tensions are removed.  In some ways, the
Wegman pin system was definitely better than the old Wurlitzer (Uniplate)
system described in previous posts.  Sometime in the 1960's, the PTG
journal ran a few paragraphs on the design history of the Wurlitzer
Uniplate (used in both uprights and grands), but I don't remember which
issues.  The problem I've had with one Wurlitzer upright player Uniplate
is that some pins tend to seize into place, and shear off unless one
first removes the back protective cover and either loosens the pin wedge,
taps the pin end, or applies a drop of penetrating oil like Kroil to
first loosen the pin.  Replacing sheared pins involves modifying a
standard pin.

While on the subject of different designs, has anyone seen any late
1920's Mason & Hamlin grands that used the Hickman modified action which
has no repetition lever and one escapement with a helper spring?  I've
seen it described only in a reference book.  It implied that the action
was used in some production Ampico B's.

Fred Scoles,  RPT,  Oswego, NY;  Syracuse Chapter PTG,  131