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Introduction to Seeburg and Western Electric Pianos
by Art Reblitz
Beginning in 1887, Justus P. Seeburg spent 18 years working in the piano industry in the Chicago area, first for C.A. Smith (which later became Smith, Barnes & Strohber), then Bush & Gertz, then as manager of the Conover piano manufacturing facility of the Chicago Cottage Organ Company (which became the Cable Company), and then by co-founding the Kurtz-Seeburg Action Company in Rockford, Illinois.
In 1905, Seeburg returned to Chicago and entered the coin-operated piano field at the Marquette Piano Company, where he and his associates built the first coin pianos and operated them "on location" in the city. In 1907, he founded the J.P. Seeburg Piano Company, which distributed the entire output of the Marquette Company. By 1909, the J.P. Seeburg Piano Company began selling pianos with the Seeburg name and mechanisms. Beginning at this time, Seeburg purchased pianos from several different manufacturers and built and installed the player mechanisms at the Seeburg factory. From then until about 1920, each Seeburg piano had the serial number assigned by the manufacturer of the piano, rather than Seeburg's own number, stamped on the plate or into the pinblock. To identify the age of a pre-1920 Seeburg piano today, it is first necessary to identify the manufacturer of the piano, and then to find the serial number in that manufacturer's serial number list, which is included elsewhere on this web site (under Summary of Serial Numbers and Dates). The importance of this study is made clear, given that the serial number dates for Seybold, Seeburg and Marshall pianos as shown in the Michael's and Pierce Piano Atlas have significant errors, and therefore can't be used for accurately dating Seeburg pianos.
Over the years, Seeburg introduced new models in alphabetical order, sometimes one model at a time, sometimes several at a time. By August 1911, Seeburg advertised that their line of five models included no less than three art styles, calling attention to the new style E violin piano. Styles A and B were plainer, and styles C, D and E were the three art styles that incorporated art glass in their fronts.
Judging by the remaining examples today, the very first Seeburg models A through E were made by the Haddorff Piano Company of Rockford, Illinois. As Haddorff already had a large manufacturing facility, it is likely that they also made the cabinets for these pianos, and supplied Seeburg with complete pianos ready for installation of the player mechanisms. Keyboard-style Haddorff pianos have a two-piece plate. The upper part originally was painted gold, with the pinblock exposed in the tuning pin areas, and the lower part was painted black (although some have had the lower portion incorrectly painted gold during restringing). Seeburg continued to use Haddorff pianos in most models of keyboard-style instruments through about 1920.
Haddorff also made the keyboardless (cabinet style) pianos used in pre-1920 Seeburg Ks and KTs, incorporating the same piano backs that Haddorff supplied to Link and others. (Link pianos have Link factory serial numbers stamped into the pinblock, and sometimes also have the Haddorff number written on or stamped into the cabinet.)
In May 1912, Seeburg began advertising their fanciest A-roll piano, the new style F. By the end of that same year, they also extensively promoted the G, H, J and L orchestrions, which were much fancier than the earlier coin pianos. Most early orchestrions contain heavy pianos with plates having large cloverleaf-shaped holes. The maker of these pianos was unknown until Dana Johnson found remains of the name "Edmund Gram" partially cast into the plate in Seeburg J #8,854. The mold had been forced into the sand, and then the sand was mostly filled in after the foundryman discovered that the plate should say "J.P. Seeburg" instead. It is possible that Gram either made just the piano backs for these instruments, or made both the backs and fancy cabinets as well. The Edmund Gram Piano Company also made pianos under the names "Gram-Richtsteig" and "Richtsteig-Nussbaum," and a few Seeburgs have one of these names cast into the plate, with a "Seeburg" overlay plate covering them.
To keep from being totally dependent on one sole supplier for a given model of piano or orchestrion, and possibly to keep their suppliers competitive as well, Seeburg also obtained pianos from Seybold. Extant examples include the model A, B, C and G, implying that these were Seeburg's best-selling keyboard-style pianos. Judging by the early Seeburg mechanisms, and dates that are rubber-stamped inside the snare and bass drums, Seybold/Seeburg pianos are older than the dates listed in the Pierce Piano Atlas. Seybold pianos are identified by their peculiar "three up - three down" pattern of tuning pins in which the pins for each consecutive note are staggered vertically much farther than in any other piano. Also, Seybold Seeburgs have a removable cast iron overlay bearing the Seeburg name in the upper right hand corner of the plate, with the Seybold name cast into the piano plate underneath. (Seybold pianos were also used in Coinola and Reproduco instruments made by Operators Piano Company, but with Operators' own serial numbers.)
The two different G cabinet styles are not "early" and "late," as is commonly thought. The style with taller art glass doors, plain rectangular molding on the sides, decorative curved brackets under the corners of the keybed, and smaller front legs ("early") was used for Gs that usually housed Gram and Seybold pianos, between 1912 and 1916 or 1917. The style with shorter art glass doors, arched moldings at the top of the sides, elongated torch tops, and large front legs extending all the way above the keybed (sometimes referred to as "late," "odd" or "F-style") was the cabinet used for Haddorff G's, from at least as early as 1914 through the 1920's.
All Ks and KTs were made by Haddorff or Seeburg. None are known with Gram or Seybold serial numbers.
The first tiny cabinet piano was the Phono-Grand, introduced in October, 1917, which included a phonograph and a tiny expression piano mechanism for playing style "XP" rolls. This combination machine was not very successful, and within a few years the remaining Phono-Grand cabinets were being used to manufacture the new Model PGA (or Phono-Grand, A). It was a modified Phono-Grand, without the phonograph, and with one art glass window, three access doors and a flat top. This was a transitional model followed by the newer Model "L", first listed in the June, 1921, Automatic Music Roll Company bulletin. A month earlier, in the May, 1921, bulletin, the style L Orchestra (which played G rolls) was listed for the last time, without any mention of the new style L (The Lilliputian) to be listed in subsequent bulletins. All cabinet-Model L's have die-stamped numbers and were made by Seeburg.
With the beginning of prohibition, the market for large orchestrions was almost completely dead. Seeburg continued to advertise the G and H orchestrions, but very few were sold after 1920. The focus was now on promoting, manufacturing and selling smaller, simpler coin pianos including the redesigned E, K and KT with xylophone, the cabinet Model L (introduced in 1921), and the KT Special, along with various Western Electric models introduced in the mid-20's.
Justus Seeburg already had ample experience in managing piano-manufacturing facilities, and by 1919 he had accumulated enough working capital and/or credit to build a complete piano production line. In May 1919, he resigned from the Seeburg Piano Co. and founded the "Marshall Piano Company," named after his son N. Marshall and located in the same premises on Dayton street. The purpose of the Marshall Piano Company was to build ordinary pianos in anticipation of a diminished market for coin pianos and orchestrions. However, with the introduction of smaller, simpler instruments, business unexpectedly boomed. On July 30, 1920, J.P. Seeburg repurchased the Seeburg Piano Company, and combined it with Marshall. Now the J.P. Seeburg Piano Co. was fully self-contained.
Every possible measure was taken to simplify the product line. Pipes were almost completely discontinued except on special order. K and KT scissors pumps (heretofore used for machines with pipes), were "used up" in the first K's and KT's with xylophones (which didn't need air pressure and didn't have pressure reservoirs), after which time Seeburg used "box" pumps, which were easier and cheaper to make. Henceforth, box pumps were used in all pianos with relatively deep cabinets -- models K, KT, KT Special, L, E Special and H. Scissors pumps continued to be used in pianos with relatively shallow cabinets -- models A, E and G -- in which there wasn't enough depth for a box pump -- all the way to the end of production. The drive pulley is located toward the back of the scissors pump, but is in front of the box pump, requiring greater depth for the music roll drive friction wheel.
The style H xylophone actions with large beaters were also used up in the early 1920's in the style E's, K's and KT's, after which time xylophones with smaller beaters were used exclusively. Piano stacks were completely redesigned, too, with simpler valves and pushrods. Stop rails were introduced on the piano actions to simplify regulation. Post-1920 cabinets were also much simpler than the earlier ones, and they typically had much cheaper, thinner, non-rubbed finishes -- including the inexpensive "silver grey" finish. Coin switch boxes and cash drawers were made of sheet metal instead of cast iron. All of these measures were taken to reduce the cost, in an era when lower-cost products were needed for smaller locations.
In the early 1920's, a few Seeburgs had the "Marshall" name cast into the plate, with a "Seeburg" overlay plate. This practice was soon abandoned, and almost all 1920's Seeburgs have the Seeburg name cast into the plate without an overlay.
Beginning around 1921, Seeburg began their own serial numbering system, using steel stamping dies to stamp the numbers in the pinblocks. The lowest known number in this series is a three-door Model L #52,403 (the connecting link between the PGA and the more common 2-door L). It seems logical that Seeburg might have started their own numbering series with 50,000, but more serial numbers are needed to verify this.
According to N. Marshall Seeburg II, J.P. Seeburg's grandson, the Seeburg company maintained exclusive regional distribution areas for their dealers, and policed the activities of dealers by keeping track of the serial number of each instrument that was sold. If a piano sold to a Florida distributor turned up in Milwaukee, for example, the Florida distributor was immediately investigated and disciplined or terminated, to protect the Milwaukee dealer's distributorship. It seems likely that Seeburg found it difficult to differentiate between 1913 Haddorff Seeburgs numbered in the low 50,000's and their new pianos also numbered in the low 50,000's, even though the Haddorffs had rubber-stamped numbers and the early 1920's pianos had die-stamped numbers. The problem was easily solved when Seeburg created a new numbering series by jumping from approximately 55,000 to 155,000. This occurred somewhere between Seeburg L #55,020 and K #155,331.
Seeburg pianos with die-stamped numbers from 52,000 to 55,000 have plates with cloverleaf holes. It is unknown whether Seeburg purchased these from Gram or manufactured them, but after 155,000 the pianos were made in the Seeburg plant. N. Marshall Seeburg wrote to Art Sanders in 1951 "Your assumption that Haddorff made a great many of our pianos is correct, but we discontinued business with them when the Marshall Piano Company came into being." Lee S. Jones, a Seeburg sales manager after World War I wrote Art Sanders "I think we sold the "L" wholesale at around $300 and the K and KT at $420.... This was a terrific mark up inasmuch as we made every part of the piano except the plate and action. However, we had to have that sort of a profit as we were giving three years to pay." Also, a movie made in the factory in 1927 shows workers brushing shellac on soundboards ready to be glued into piano backs.
The last Seeburg musical instruments produced in 1928 and 1929 were mortuary organs, and the first "Audiophone" jukeboxes continued with the same serial numbering series used for the Seeburg made coin pianos. Fortunately, many Seeburg pianos having numbers above 155,000 also had a date rubber-stamped on the underside of the hammers, usually in the tenor or mid-treble area. Very few rebuilders have been careful to make note of these dates when replacing sets of hammers, but enough numbers survive today that it has been possible to construct the dating list included elsewhere in this web site.
In 1924, Axel Larson, Byron Waters and Russell Wilcox, previously of the Marquette Piano Company, became officers of the new "Western Electric Piano Company," a secret subsidiary of the Seeburg Piano Company. Several models of Western Electric coin pianos and orchestrions were produced within the Seeburg factory, and they were all numbered in the Seeburg serial numbering system between 158,000 and 168,000.
Copyright © 1995-2008 Art Reblitz - All rights reserved