Angelus Artrio
Seen the Emerson Angelus Artrio reproducing piano on eBay? I part-restored one of these in 1983, a fine piano, for a Mr Beeley in Southampton, who had just eleven rolls for it. For those who are not familiar with the type, the Trio part of the Artrio name stems from the threefold expression mechanism. This takes each separate side of the stack through up to four vents, a large 'melody' vent and three progressively smaller bleed holes. The resultant flow from both treble and bass then passes into an 'accompaniment regulator' that adjusts the general level of vacuum and whose output then passes to the pump, a standard four bellows arrangement a la Duo-Art. It is therefore rather like a Duo-Art only without the themodist slits, these being replaced with individual treble and bass ducts in the tracker bar.The tracker bar is thus infested with expression holes which set the general accompaniment level through the central accompaniment regulator while the treble and bass are themed relative to each other in comparison to the accompaniment level. There's a thing called a 'venti-box' on the pump - basically a spill valve to keep the pump cool when the music's soft. The rest of the player stuff is all standard Angelus, heavy on tan pouch leather. The piano I part restored sounded rather like a Duo-Art, and it did have the immediacy of the Ampico system in some passages, It did not wander around the dynamics like some Welte rolls can. Rolls for this beastie are as rare as hen's teeth. In thirty odd years I've come across only a couple, which I gave to Frank Holland. Without the rolls this piano remains something of a curio - but if someone has the rolls well, then that's another matter, and the piano looks to be in quite restorable condition. Tempted? Three days to make a bid and punch some extra expression holes in your hand played rolls!
Seen the Emerson Angelus Artrio reproducing piano on eBay? I part-restored one of these in 1983, a fine piano, for a Mr Beeley in Southampton, who had just eleven rolls for it. For those who are not familiar with the type, the Trio part of the Artrio name stems from the threefold expression mechanism. This takes each separate side of the stack through up to four vents, a large 'melody' vent and three progressively smaller bleed holes. The resultant flow from both treble and bass then passes into an 'accompaniment regulator' that adjusts the general level of vacuum and whose output then passes to the pump, a standard four bellows arrangement a la Duo-Art. It is therefore rather like a Duo-Art only without the themodist slits, these being replaced with individual treble and bass ducts in the tracker bar.The tracker bar is thus infested with expression holes which set the general accompaniment level through the central accompaniment regulator while the treble and bass are themed relative to each other in comparison to the accompaniment level. There's a thing called a 'venti-box' on the pump - basically a spill valve to keep the pump cool when the music's soft. The rest of the player stuff is all standard Angelus, heavy on tan pouch leather. The piano I part restored sounded rather like a Duo-Art, and it did have the immediacy of the Ampico system in some passages, It did not wander around the dynamics like some Welte rolls can. Rolls for this beastie are as rare as hen's teeth. In thirty odd years I've come across only a couple, which I gave to Frank Holland. Without the rolls this piano remains something of a curio - but if someone has the rolls well, then that's another matter, and the piano looks to be in quite restorable condition. Tempted? Three days to make a bid and punch some extra expression holes in your hand played rolls!