Early Wurlitzer organs were built with a roll frame capable of handling only a roll about four or five tunes in length. Toward the end of 1913 the company began furnishing roll frames capable of handling the 10-tune roll that was to become the standard roll. However it wasn't until August 1925 that Wurlitzer ceased making the shorter type of roll. From 1913 to 1925, tunes were generally supplied on both types of rolls in order to satisfy organ owners, no matter which type of roll frame their organ used.

The Great Depression of 1929 unquestionably affected the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, and two practices arose in the early 1930s which can probably be attributed to the company's efforts to cut costs. The most noticeable change was that its band organ rolls no longer contained ten tunes, but only six very long ones, with enough repeats to make the six-tune roll about the same playing length as a ten-tune roll. The arranging costs for a six-tune roll had to be far less than the costs for arranging ten tunes.

The second practice is less noticeable. Throughout Wurlitzer roll production there has always been some similarity in contents between its Style 125 rolls and its Style 150 rolls (but virtually no similarity with its Style 165 rolls). However, in 1930 what was merely an occasional similarity became a lock-step correspondence. Beginning with roll 3165 and continuing down to roll 3204, the contents of Style 125 rolls, tune-for-tune, was identical to the contents of Style 150 rolls, those numbered 13188 to 13228. That is, from mid-1930 to early 1933, the same tunes in the same order were issued on both a Style 125 roll and a Style 150 roll. During those almost three years, there was no roll issued in one format that was not also issued in the other format (see the list on this page).

From mid-1933 to late 1934, there was no correspondence between Style 125 and Style 150 rolls. Only one Style 125 roll (3205) was issued during that period, while five Style 150 rolls appeared (13229 to 13233). In late 1934, the lock-step correspondence between the rolls in the two series resumed (at roll 3206 and roll 13234 respectively) and continued without a single anomaly down to the end of Wurlitzer production in 1945 with roll 3240 and its Style 150 twin, roll 13268. [The T.R.T. Manufacturing Company in several instances also issued the same tunes in the same order as both a Style 125 roll and a Style 150 roll, with four also issued in Style 165. There are also many contemporary rolls with this correspondence of tunes. -- added 6/17/22]

One wonders what changes to the arrangements were required in producing the masters for each format and how much money was saved by the practice.

2022 revision history:
Late May: Rolls 3283, 3284, 3286, 3544, 3545 added to Part 4.
Jun. 17: Note added to "On Wurlitzer's roll-issuing practices" pertaining to post-Wurlitzer rolls issued with the same program for both Style 125 and Style 150.
Dates unknown: Rolls 1002, 1034, 1191, 1206-A, 1212 added to Part 2a.
List added of 12-tune composites of six-tune rolls.
List added of equivalent Style 125, Style 150 and Style 165 rolls.
Note added that roll 3910 was apparently also issued as roll 3916.
Note added that roll 3915 was apparently also issued as roll 3543.

2023 revision history:
Mar. 25: List of composites expanded to become list of recut or reissued rolls; many rolls added to list from labels and other sources.
Mar. 28: Roll 3165 added to list of recut or reissued rolls.
Mar. 28: Rolls 3143X, 3266X added to Part 2a and to list of recut or reissued rolls.
Apr. 14: Rolls added to list of recut or reissued rolls, 1206-1219, 1371-1386, 1379-1385, 3044, 3104, 3117, 3129, 3132, 3145, 3149, 3150, 3152, 3153, 3154, 3172.
May 2: Roll 3071 added to list of recut or reissued rolls. List also amended to show recutting by Play-Rite of roll 3033 (already listed as reissued by HCFM).
May 10: Rolls added to list of recut or reissued rolls, 1151-1192, 1335-1348, 3032, 3038, 3088, 3097, 3120, 3144, 3229-3236, 3264-3267.
List also amended to show recutting by Mike Grant of rolls 3103, 3153, 3155, 3261-3263 (already listed as reissued or recut by others).
May 15: Notes added that rolls 3544 and 3545 were issued by Gold Leaf Galleries. Note added that roll 3911 was apparently also issued as roll 3619.
May 28: Information added to list of recut or reissued rolls: Player Piano Centre, 3144; Mike Grant, 3089, 3111; Play-Rite, 3106, 3108, 3119, 3172, 3212, 3213, 3235.
May 30: Roll scale added.
Jun. 13: List of recut or reissued rolls revised to show that roll 3103 was reissued by T.R.T.
Aug. 18: Notes added that rolls 3902 and 3913 were previously (?) issued as rolls 3618 and 3617, respectively.
Oct. 11: Roll 3026 added to list of recut or reissued rolls. Note about label error added to roll 3545.
Oct. 19: Rolls 1312 and 3112 added to list of recut or reissued rolls.
Oct. 28: List of recut or reissued rolls revised to show that rolls 3104 and 3231 were recut by Mike Grant.
Nov. 25: List of recut or reissued rolls revised to show that roll 3091 was recut by Play-Rite.
Dec. 1: List of recut or reissued rolls revised to show that rolls 3033 and 3109 were recut by Mike Grant.
Dec. 6: Rolls 3086 and 3219-3221 added to list of recut or reissued rolls.
List revised to show that rolls 3135 and 3238 were recut by Mike Grant; roll 3195 was reissued by T.R.T.; roll 3256 was reissued by Player Piano Centre.
Dec. 14: List of recut or reissued rolls revised to show that roll 3033 was reissued by T.R.T.

2024 revision history:
May 12: List of recut or reissued rolls revised to show that roll 3244 was reissued by T.R.T.
May 20: Roll 3079 added to list of recut or reissued rolls. Same list revised to show that roll 3254-3259 was recut by Mike Grant.
July 31: Roll 3260-3265 added to list of recut or reissued rolls. Same list revised to show that roll 3268-3271 was recut by Mike Grant.
Aug. 20: Roll 3048 added to list of recut or reissued rolls. Same list revised to show that roll 3051 was recut by Mike Grant and roll 3147 was reissued by Player Piano Centre.
Sep. 22: Unnumbered Christmas roll added to Part 4.
Sep. 23: Roll 3615 added to Part 4.
Oct. 6: Rolls 3092 and 3158 added to Part 2a.