Darrell Clarke wanted a bit more detail about the UK Aeolian instruments
that may be found fitted with PEDA actions. Without recourse to
substantial research, here's the story as I see it.

Aeolian in the USA purchased Weber and Steck in 1902, presumably as a
precursor to putting their Pianola into their own pianos. Typical
Aeolian forward-looking business practice!

In 1906 they advertised in the UK that 'owners frequently request
players installed in a German piano' - German pianos long having had a
cachet in the UK. At the time Aeolian were shipping US-built pianos
here, and also fitting Pianolas into London-built Broadwood pianos.
Anyway, Aeolian announced that they had purchased a German piano builder
to meet this market - Ernst Munck, of Gotha. For whatever reason, Munck
was soon renamed Steck (Not 'George Steck', just Steck). Whether the
actual piano design was altered I don't know, as Munck players are very
uncommon and I've never seen one. In any case, the Gotha Stecks are
superb instruments, in build quality and sound. They even ran to a 7'6"
Pianola grand.

In 1910 Aeolian found that demand had risen so much that an English
factory was in order, and they built a huge plant out at Hayes, 10 or so
miles to the west of London. This was to build Weber pianos.

After this date, then, UK buyers (and those markets such as the Empire
that were served by the UK operation rather than the US parent company)
got German Stecks and English Webers.

During the war in 1914 German instruments went severely out of fashion,
and could not be imported. Weber was advertised (correctly) as not being
and never having been German - despite the obviously German name from
its founder. After the war, Stecks that had been stockpiled were
imported, but without the germanic eagle transfer on the soundboard.

In 1921 or thereabouts, in a measure to protect the UK piano industry,
piano duty was increased substantially. This, and probably other factors
as well, caused Aeolian to cease Steck production in Germany and
concentrate it in England. The UK Stecks use similar case designs and an
identical naming style on the frame, but are otherwise completely
different pianos and not nearly as good - they have a much thinner
sound.

The UK product range then settled down to Steinway (imported from the
Hamburg factory and fitted with players in Hayes), Weber, Steck,
Farrand. Perhaps Stroud as well, but I've never seen one. The Farrands
are unusual, and Aeolian clearly marketed the cheap Stecks as the base
piano to as many buyers as possible - they make perhaps one third of all
players you see. Later additions to the model range were Aeolian (a sort
of composite Weber & Steck). Only Steinway, Weber and Steck were
normally fitted with Duo-Art actions.

A UK-built Steck will have a roundel on the frame saying 'Aeolian Co,
London'. Gothas never have this mark. A Gotha instrument intended for
the London market will possibly have a transfer on the soundboard saying
'Gotha and New York', but may not have it if post-war. However, imported
goods had by law to be identified, so all Gothas have 'made in Germany'
stamped on one of the back posts behind the soundboard. Darrell's Steck
sounds like a German-market one, with different quote marks on the fall.
The serial number should give it away, but that's another story.

A final twist is that Aeolian re-fitted many Gothas with new player
actions in the later 1920s. This was an implicit recognition of their
quality: a 10-to-20 year old piano with new stack was much cheaper than
a new instrument, and probably better than the Webers they were making
new. Some were fitted at this time with Duo-Art actions - pedal-only,
electric-only or pedal-electric.

I'm a fan of Gotha Stecks (can you tell?), and would love to do more
research into this backwater of Aeolian's history if material was
available. One day, perhaps.

Julian Dyer