The band board

[captslappy]

This is a prop piece that is often over looked or forgotten. The band, also called "toy counters" in the organ world were instruments mounted on a board similar to the clappers. They consisted of several percussion instruments including various drums, pots and pans, triangle, tamborine, etc. I clearly remember both my PTTs having this prop. On the computer the card cage has 6 slots for characters. The first five were the guest, chuck, munch, jasper and pasqually. #6 was the band board. The Clappers ran off the valve manifold for the band and the birds ran off of CEC's valve manifold. The flags were run off of the guest's valves. I bring up the band board because of what little I have found of PTT balcony stage stuff, I have yet to locate a band board. Does any one know if this piece was removed earlier on and for what reason? Marvins Marvelous Mechanical Museum has a balcony show set up in his museum (currently not working) and it doesn't have the band board either. Does anyone know anything about why this piece is so rare?

[MMBBfan327]

Perhaps it was not such a "sensation" such as the clappers and balcony. I remember the Clapper/Flags until 94/95, but no pots and pans. Have heard of it though.

[captslappy]

Yes that is what I am wondering. I suspect that the band board was removed sometime before the balcony was done away with. I don't know if this is due to maintenance issues or something. I'm just curious if anyone knows. Jenn might have the answer.

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

And i do...

The Band Board was only installed in the early locations. By 1982 i think most "new" locations being built were not getting it. The primary reason was more then likely technical issues...less moving parts, the more streamlined the Blacony could be made since at that time PTT was really staring to spread out like wildfire. The Band Board was simply phased out.

The Band Board was one of the first "original" connections to the original PTT concept begun in 77'. All the original locations in CA had one no doubt...it was a standard.

I know the Brandon Fl location i frequented had one....that sotre opened in 1981 i beleive and they had all the orignal hallmarks of a truly original PTT. What a place that was in the day!

[captslappy]

I wonder if the clapper board was wired directly to the card in the card cage at that point of if they left the valve manifold for band in it's original spot and just ran the clappers off the accessory terminals? Of course if later stages didn't have the band board at all they more than likely went directly to the driver board in the card cage. At any rate, the band board must truly be a rare item. I have talked to someone who believes they know of someone that might have one. Maybe one will surface at some future time. In the meantime, I don't feel quite so incomplete without one.

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

Captain Sir.....if ANYONE can find one it's YOU!! :D

[YoungCaliHottie]

its all foreign to me. lol. i can kinda follow along with what you guys r talking about, but i sure wish i knew more about this stuff!

good luck finding your board!


kinda off topic but not... since u guys are talking about boards and computers and stuff... maybe u can answer this question for me. *hope i dont sound too dumb. lol*

what would happen if you tried to play a cec tape in a rae computer or vice versa? since cu just kinda rearranged the characters and gave them new appearances, could you make this work? i dunno... was just bored one day and thinking random thoughts... and this came into my head. lol!

[captslappy]

An excellent question and one I'd like to experiment with at some point. I'll let you know someday when I try it.

[ChuckEZone]

Unfortunately, I forgot who tried that awhile back. Might have been Snap(?)

If I remember correctly, the tape played for only a little bit, then was auto-ejected.


EDIT: The tape was a RAE Cyberstar in the Cyberstar VHS deck.

[captslappy]

I'm talking about using balcony reels on the RAE computer and vice versa. We aren't talking about cyberstar here. What snap did was using the VHS cyberstar tapes.

[YoungCaliHottie]

well that explains it for tapes. but id like to know if reels work. i guess ill find out eventually when i get my rae stage. but i dont know anything about that stuff and am scared to try it from fear id break it or something. lol

[captslappy]

I have the equipment to try it both ways and will inform you of the results if/when I do it.

[YoungCaliHottie]

awesome! thanks capt!!! appreciate it! take a vid clip if u can! :rollin

i would love to see what mitzi looks like singing helens voice.

or see fatz sing "homework" or something. hahahahahahah would be so interesting!

[captslappy]

I think there is still confusion about what we are talking about. No one has the cyberstar system which runs VCR tapes. What I'm talking about is using the equipment to run the balcony show and see how the RAE responds and vice versa. Specifically using a Tascam 44 (what runs the RAE) and the X-7R (which runs the balcony) and try hooking both into the other computer and see what happens. This experiment really is being done with pre-merger equipment. In other words PTT and Showbiz were 2 seperate entities at the time so the signals if they work at all will most likely result in totally random movement that make no sense. For example, Mitzi's left ear signal might be Pasqually's mouth. Billy Bob's guitar raise might be the signal that make's Chuck. E's eyes look left, etc. I also should mention that the RAE's reel to reels are 4 channels. There are 2 data channels (one runs the right side of the stage, one runs the left) and 2 audio channels that are stereo. The PTT stuff only used a 2 channel format. One side was the data signals and the other side was the audio but it was in mono only.

[menutia]

You cannot control PTT shows with RAE signals and Verse Visa. Um.. yeah.

Won't happen. Sorry.

~M

[MMBBfan327]

Back to the Band Board...

What did it look like? Because in 6th grade, we went to a place called "House on the Rock" here in WI, and they had a window shape with stuff playing itself about the size of a window, and I think the Portraits were about that size. IDK.

[menutia]

Ahh.. the "House of the Schlock" "A collections of collections". Actuelly a really cool place to see some home spun anamatronics and wierd collections.

www.houseontherock.com/ (http://www.houseontherock.com/)

What you are thinking, was peobably the mandolin band thing going into the infinity room. I can tell you that they do not have any CEC stuff at this place.

~M

[captslappy]

The band was just a bunch of percussion instruments mounted in a picture frame basically the same way the clappers were. It was just percussion stuff. I think there were 2 or 3 different sized cowbells, a few different drums, 3 different sized pots and pans, a triangle and a tamborine.

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

Yep....and it used to play right along with the show music too....so it gave the impression of the music being performed "live"!

I remember the Band Board in Brandon Fl's CEC in 81'. It was a nice one...had a full set of items as the Captain listed above plus lights as well. It was very cool to hear it playing along with the show...it added a lot to the overall experience.

[captslappy]

Back to the band board clapper hook up... I just had an idea hit me (and it hurt too). Hit the cymbal! Anyway, the card cage has 9 slots for light drivers and character driver boards. Each character board knows what is sposeda do because there is a jumper that you set on it and you short different pins together so that card knows who is plugged into it. Pin #14 is always ground. You short the jumper to pins #1-8 on the other side of the chip to get the card to respond to a certain character. CEC and the birds are #1, #2 is Jasper, #3 is Pasqually, #5 is the guest, #6 Drum board, #7 lights (front) #8 lights (back). Ok great, so what does this have to do with the price of tea in China you ask. Well, several things, first off you can run multiples of the same character. For example, if you have Harmony AND Oink you could set 2 character cards to run the guests. The bad thing is that they will both mimick each other exactly and everytime Harmony's voice is heard Oink's mouth also moves in sync which will look a bit odd. BUT... you should be able to set up a card for both Chuck and the Warblettes so they don't have to run together off the same card. This is good if you don't have the special splitter cable. Relating this to the band board which is what the thread is actually about, you could run the clappers AND the band off seperate cards. So, even if you are using CEC, Munch, Jasper, Pasqually, and Helen and you have all the lights set up (2 cards) you still have 2 empty slots in your computer. That means you can set up a seperate card for the clappers and the birds. If you had a band too then you'd have to make either CHuck and the birds share one or the band and the clappers share one. Looney, you're a genius! Now I will just have to test this little theory but I don't see why this wouldn't work.

[VegaNova]

Hey Capt,

I think I know someone who has one of these... or at least the remnants of one. I had a picture somewhere of it sitting in his garage - I checked my computer and it's not on there so I must be remembering an actual photo that was mailed to me.

From what I remember it was missing quite a few of the items and would definetely be a restoration piece... not sure if you're interested in that, but if so shoot me an e-mail and we can look more into this.

-VegaNova

[captslappy]

Travis, thanks for the update and I'm sorry I missed you when you came through Dallas. If you are out this way again let me know. As for the band board, I don't think I'll have the room. Looking at the clapper board building one would actually be pretty easy. I am sure somewhat out there has one of these and in due time one will turn up. In the meantime, it might be something interesting to follow up on for yourself. If you don't want it I'm sure someone out there would be interested if the person in question is open to selling.

[YoungCaliHottie]

"Looney, you're a genius"

lol... love that quote...

[JyPsy]

I was poking through some of my scans from the 80s on chase ave, and came across two that had a snippet of the band board in the corner..

i touched up the pics so you can get a better look at what i have... sorry its not more comprehensive.

i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Jypsy/bandboard.gif (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/Jypsy/bandboard.gif)

[captslappy]

That's it! I'm glad someone had a pic of it. If you look in the history section on the site I think you can see one (an earlier version) over a door in an early PTT brochure.

[JyPsy]

thats exactly where this is, over the door that is between the slide and pasqually.(for backstage stuff i assume)

[MMBBfan327]

Nice. It'd be cool if Chase still had some old mechs in the backroom. I KNOW there has to be a CEC in WI with older stuff.

[captslappy]

I'd be surprised. Most stores threw the stuff out. That is what they are supposed to. Don't expect too many locations to have older stuff in storage. I'm sure there are a few stores like that but they are most likely few and far between.

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

Yeah....sad but true. Whenever a new setup came in, or new show elements or props, it was usually accompenied by a instruction manual of how to install the new items.

On the first page, the first line of instruction was usually this: Remove and destroy the old items! In the early era nobody except serious weirdos ( cough..) bothered to even consider saving this "trash". Some of those freaks did though and we can now enjoy these relics from a bygone era. In the early days PTT did'nt really give a hoot about what happend to there stuff. A lot of locations may have even sold off old stuff to competiors for some extra cash...who knows for sure as it was all very secretive. In later years of course when Showbiz Pizza came along and the multitude of other rip-offs PTT had to better protect itself. This is when we came into a era of "remove and destroy" standards where a item had to be destroyed physically...in some cases photos needed to be taken to prove to the Company that the above items was actually destroyed on property and not released to the public. This is still in practice today, but moreso with the old games. We used to have to break out the old sledgehammer in "D" and spend a few minutes out back smashing up some neat old game that was slated by the Company to be "disposed" of. They were so terrified that someone else would get there hands on it and resell it...or worse, some arcade owner would scoop it and (gasp) make some money with it himslef!

As far as costumes and Bot's go....the usual practice now is to destroy it or break it up/take it apart to a point where it's not obviously useable. Some of us though can have a look at something and know wether or not it salvagable....heh heh.

Anyway....there are still some stashes out there. It's those old ex-PTT locations that have the best chances of a potential goldmine hidden in the atticspaces above the walk-in fridge and other cubby holes within the old building. They DO exsist...it's just getting harder and harder to find them at the rate old ex-PTT locations buildings are changing hands ( and names!)

[captslappy]

Yeah... despite the rareness I am very surprised we haven't seen ANY cosmetics for Sally or Foxy pop up. I'm still a bit surprised we have yet to meet a fan who actually saw either of these 2 characters perform. I can't help but wonder if some of those mask frames weren't refurred for Harmony.

[Shiney Happy Jenn]

There were so few locations back then when Sally and Foxxy were being used...this is part of the reason why they are so elusive.

Your best bet is finding a stash in a old ex-PTT out in CA or even the midwest. Most early locations were based in the CA area. There were a few PTT's built further out by 1980, namely in FL, TX and some in the midwest. The majority are only CA though.

Give it time Captain...sooner or later they will show up. I'm certain the Harmony Howlette patterns/frames are simly Sally/Foxxy frames re-furred. No doubt in my mind after examining the Harmony head up close.