Gabe Della Fave concluded [010707 MMDigest]:
> So, 1 in 25 pianos is a player piano. 1 in 125 pianos is a
> working player piano. 1 in 1400 pianos is a working expression piano.
Autoplayer was a player piano sales and repairs shop which operated
during the 1970s in Slough, about 30 miles west of London, only a few
miles from the former major Aeolian player factory site (1908-1932) at
Hayes. I was once chatting to its proprietor, Paul Young, and he said
that there were noticeably more Aeolian players in the Thames Valley
than anywhere else in the country. He said:
"We get five pedal-only Duo-Art uprights offered to us by phone,
by people in the Thames Valley, every week -- that's 250 a year!
How many Duo-Art owners ever get to hear of us? One in five?
How many of those bother to phone us in a year? One in 4?
Conservatively, that has to mean there are 5,000 pedal-only
Duo-Arts in this part of the country alone!"
This seems quite possible since British (or German masquerading as
British) Aeolian-made pianos are still regarded in the trade as solid
instruments worth repairing, and so fewer of them get destroyed than
other middle-of-the-road pianos.
Dan Wilson
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