Seeburg Styles G and H Drum Shelf Designs
— Early (Pre 1922) Designs —

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz)

Early drum layout in Seeburg G #12,312, made in 1920. From the beginning of production until early 1922, Seeburg laid out the drum shelf as in this picture, with the snare drum on the left, the cymbal and triangle in the middle, and the bass drum on the right. The snares and snare damper were mounted on the front of the snare drum, and the beater was in back. In this picture, the snare damper is rectangular, painted black, covered with thick felt facing the snare, and loosely mounted on the wire to conform perfectly to the snares.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz)

At the lower right of this picture, the two wires that are bent upward and resemble tiny golf clubs are attached to slide switches in the wooden box. These switches allow the snare drum and triangle to be turned off manually when desired. This picture of Seeburg G #18,624, made in 1913, also shows the typical red shellac found on the wooden components above the keyboard in early styles G and H.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz)

The knob with the pointer and on/off label are mounted directly under the bass drum and tympani pneumatics in G #18,624. This knob allows for manually turning off the bass drum, tympani, and cymbal when desired.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz)

The early style drum shelf in Seeburg H #75,000 made in 1917, with the xylophone and pipes removed for tuning the piano. The layout is similar to that in a pre-1922 G. The pneumatic on the left end of the bottom of the shelf (see left side inset) is the regulator pneumatic for drum soft expression, and the box with a small pneumatic on top of the shelf to the left of the snare drum is the bypass pneumatic for loud drum expression. The drum expression bypass pneumatic is teed to the piano expression bypass pneumatic, allowing the piano and drum vacuum to be regulated individually, but so they both get loud and soft together. The black box hanging from the right end of the drum shelf (see right side inset) is the lock and cancel mechanism (or register box) that controls the flute and violin pipes, xylophone, piano treble, and expression on and off automatically from the roll.