"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"...Mark Twain

[Ray T. Bentley]

Thanks so much to Rob Goodale and Arthur Reblitz for answering the questions
that were discussed because of my curiosity!  As they say, "Inquiring minds
want to know!"  Hope to see both of you in Reno!

Ray T. Bentley, RPT
Alton, IL

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur A. Reblitz" <orchestrion@juno.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2000 11:23 AM
Subject: "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"...Mark
Twain


> My friend Rob Goodale has brought it to my attention that this is a good
> time to dispel some myths. Reality: I’m alive and well in beautiful
> Colorado Springs. I’ve been an RPT since 1974. I’ve been busy restoring,
> tuning and servicing orchestrions since the 1960s.
>
> For the past 20 years, my shop has performed many restorations, some
> taking over two years, for the Victorian Palace, a private collection in
> a 45,000 (!) square foot home on 50 acres in a Chicago suburb. The owner
> regularly opens this fabulous treasure trove to collectors’ and
> fund-raising groups, and has shared it with tens of thousands of people.
> It was one of the first large collections where a major investment was
> made in bringing automatic instruments to a high standard of musical
> performance, and in ongoing maintenance to keep them playing well. RPT
> members who have worked with me include Roger Hathaway (now in Santa Fe,
> NM), and Jennifer Parks (now in Manhattan, KS).
>
> As much as I enjoy "talking shop," I’ve been so busy with the Victorian
> Palace and other collections that I haven’t had time for many other
> activities. I’ve never spoken at a PTG Convention because I’m a better
> writer than public speaker. My phone number is unlisted, not because I’m
> unfriendly, but because I have to earn a living and there aren’t enough
> hours in the day to socialize with the many great friends I’ve met along
> the way. I haven’t attended PTG conventions because I’m busy with several
> other groups, spreading the word on high quality piano work among
> automatic instrument collectors.
>
> For the past five years, I’ve been writing a 400+ page book, "The Golden
> Age of Automatic Musical Instruments," funded by three major collectors.
> It contains hundreds of beautiful professional color photographs of
> millions of dollars worth of rare musical treasures, a substantial text
> on the history, mechanisms, and musical qualities of each instrument, and
> a photographic tribute to pioneer collectors who preserved these charming
> "musical time machines" during the early years when the instruments had
> little monetary value. The book is not available yet, but we will
> advertise it in the Journal when it’s in print in mid-2001.
>
> Your discussion of my spelling of "whippen" vs. "wippen" substantiates
> the old adage that "few people ever read the introduction to a book." The
> 2nd edition of my "Piano Servicing, Tuning & Rebuilding" (1993) includes
> this in the introduction: "When the author wrote the 1st edition, the
> spellings ‘whippen’ and ‘wippen’ were both in common use by other
> technicians. Since then, the PTG, most piano manufacturers, and most
> other authors have standardized the spelling ‘wippen.’ To conform to
> convention, this edition uses that spelling throughout, although
> ‘whippen’ will always seem correct to the author." What it doesn’t say is
> that I grew up buying supplies from Schaff on Clybourn Ave. in the 1960s,
> where it was spelled "whippen." There’s no more to it than that!
>
> Best regards to all,
>
> Art Reblitz
> orchestrion@juno.com
>