The Aristocrat Reproducing Piano,
Peer of All Coin-Operated Musical Instruments

The photographic reproduction of the “Aristocrat” Reproducing Piano (above) shows how devoid it is of all outward appearance of mechanism.

Multi-Control is built-in as an integral part of the piano and concealed from view. To all appearances the instrument is a non-reproducing upright piano.

How Multi-Control is assembled within the “Aristocrat” is shown in picture below. The ten music rolls, which concealed from view, are readily accessible and can be changed at will.

The keyboard of the “Aristocrat” is open and available for the personal performer as an accompaniment to an orchestra or to vocal selections.

Contrast this instrument with the picture of the Automatic Piano shown on the bottom of the page. The bottom picture is the 5-cent coin-operated instrument manufactured by this company and is non-competitive, appealing to a different class of patrons from the 10-cent coin-operated “Aristocrat.”

The “Aristocrat” Reproducing Piano of Automatic Musical Instrument Company marks a new era in coin-operated musical instruments in that it places at the disposal of the public the very finest of classical and operatic music as well as the highest class of popular music—a perfect reproduction of the performances of the master pianists.

The “Aristocrat” combines Multi-Control and Welte-Mignon in one instrument. It will reproduce your choice of the finest piano music with the same fidelity as a Reproducing Piano costing from $2,500 to $3,500, and with far greater facility and convenience than has ever before been attained by any Reproducing Piano, no matter what the price.

The coin-boxes are located apart from the piano. They may be placed in any part of the room or in numerous places throughout the room. On each coin-box there is a list of the ten selections which are at that time installed in the instrument.

You deposit a dime in the coin-box and press the button by the side of the name of the selection which you desire. Without further human effort the instrument automatically selects and installs your choice and it is played—the very finest of piano music will thus be reproduced with the exact expression of the master pianist who created it.

This remarkable instrument was designed and perfected to meet a demand which the Automatic Piano cannot satisfy. The Automatic Pianos built by this organization are without a superior in their class. These instruments, however, are restricted to jazz and the so-called popular music. Their popularity is attested by the fact that the instruments built, managed and serviced by Automatic Musical Instrument Company are now harvesting nickels at the rate of approximately a million dollars a year. Yet these Automatic Pianos are not suitable for installation in the better and more prosperous locations, nor are they expected to be, but the “Aristocrat” will delight the most fastidious music lovers.

The “Aristocrat” therefore appeals to the higher class locations—country clubs, city clubs, hotels, fine restaurants, etc. Test have demonstrated the popularity and profit of the “Aristocrat” for such locations. These instruments are now being manufactured in quantity for coin-operation by Automatic Musical Instrument Company and will be operated by this company through its own established system of service.

Over 4,000 of this type of Automatic Piano are now being successfully managed and serviced by Automatic Musical Instrument Company.

“The Aristocrat” for the Home

In developing the “Aristocrat” for coin-operation there has been created a new and distinctive type of musical instrument that is especially desirable for home use.

The only change from the public instrument to the home instrument is the substitution of push-button control for coin-box control—no other alteration is necessary.

As an instrument for the home the “Aristocrat” Reproducing Piano is in a class by itself, with no equivalent competitor.

It is first of all, a high-class upright piano. It bears no outward earmarks of the mechanical piano. The keyboard is open and available to the personal performer. The boy or girl taking music lessons uses the instrument as any other piano for daily practice. The experienced pianist plays her selections, or the accompaniment for singing, or the accompaniment for an orchestra, just as though it were a non-reproducing piano.

The “aristocrat” has all the advantages and merits and beauty of the ordinary high-class upright piano and in addition you need but press a button and one of the world’s master pianist is in your home, playing your favorite musical selection, or a complete program of your selection, with identically the same touch, the same technique, the same expression, as though he were in the personal presence of the most select gathering of music lovers and critics.

The industrial importance of such an instrument may be better appreciated by consideration of the statistics of the piano industry. Government figures for a recent census year show an annual production of over one hundred million ($100,000,000.00) dollars worth of pianos in the United States, of which approximately three-quarters are upright pianos, two-thirds of which have player attachments of some kind.

This means that the United States is producing and selling approximately fifty million ($50,000,000.00) dollars worth of upright player pianos of various types each year. The “Aristocrat” embodies attractive features and advantages which are not to be found in any of these pianos. Some are of the reproducing type, but none of them contain Multi-Control or anything that will do what Multi-Control will do.

The very finest of the competitive instruments are more obviously mechanical, requiring that one go to the piano with each change of musical selection and change the music rolls by hand. The “Aristocrat” is the first reproducing piano of any type combining both Welte-Mignon and Multi-Control, thereby enabling perfect reproduction, selective, by the mere touch of a finger. It is therefore a long stride ahead of all competitors in a fifty million dollar annual market.

(Source document copies courtesy of John Perschbacher.)

This auxiliary page displays the reformatted content of an original 16" x 20" sized advertising poster that was Xerox copied in four sections (due to a width limitation imposed by the copy machine). The copies were made by John H. Perschbacher during one of his visits to the Automatic Musical Instrument Company factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan, circa the 1980s. The poster was probably published circa 1925 or soon thereafter. The original source poster was one of many historic documents unceremoniously tossed aside when the old Automatic Musical Instrument Company factory, located at 1500 Union Avenue, Grand Rapids, Michigan, was razed in 2009.

(Photograph courtesy of John Perschbacher.)

The Aristocrat coin operated reproducing piano with a 10-cent coin slot attachment. The Aristocrat plays the once plentiful Welte-Mignon (Licensee) reproducing piano rolls cut and widely distributed in the U.S. Attached to the upper left side of the case is the coin slot box with a vertical row of ten buttons used to select the desired musical selection. To the right of the buttons are individual tune title strips that display the tune name, along with other pertinent information. The coin box is electrically connected to the piano's internal selective mechanism, which allows for additional wall boxes to be located at various places around the room. At the right end of the piano fallboard it will be noticed that the case has been extended beyond the normal width of the piano keyboard. This extension is to accommodate the music roll magazine, which holds 10 music rolls, with individual roll stations (or carriers) attached to a vertically oriented pair of chains. The access door to the magazine is on the right side of the piano, which makes it easy for the route operator to change music rolls. According to John H. Perschbacher, only about two dozen Aristocrat coin-operated reproducing pianos were manufactured.

(Photograph courtesy of John Perschbacher.)

Interior view of an Aristocrat coin operated reproducing piano. In the upper part of the piano are the typical Welte licensee type expression controls. In the bottom of the piano (from left to right) is the electric motor, the vacuum pump, the music roll selective mechanism, and the tracker bar transport mechanism amidst various chain sprockets and interconnecting chains. At the upper right side of the piano, the top portion of the narrow, vertically oriented roll magazine is partially visible. Curiously, on either side of the Aristocrat sits a piano covered with a heavy cloth sheet, possibly to hide the regular 5-cent coin operated National automatic pianos, which, the company claims, appeal to a different class of patron.

(Photograph courtesy of John Perschbacher.)

Close-up of the pump and other devices in the bottom of the Aristocrat reproducing piano. At left is the vacuum pump, identical to those used in the regular National automatic pianos, except that this pump has a curved spoke cast iron belt pulley instead of a wooden belt pulley. Above the pump is a row of National built unit control valves, like those used on National built stacks in the regular automatic pianos. To the right of the pump is what looks to be a vertically oriented reconfiguration of the old coin switch mechanism installed in all National 5-cent automatic pianos. At the right are the interrelated mechanisms that control the roll magazine. Behind the various interconnecting chain drives is the transport framework that holds the tracker bar, which moves horizontally up to or away from the music roll by means of a four supporting but interconnected lever arms.