[ Ref. 040317 MMDigest ]

> I ran across an Aeolian Manual and Electric Piano for sale.  My wife
> would love to own one of these and I'm curious what I can learn about
> it.  It's model 2971, known as "The Sting", vintage 1980.

I owned one for about 20 years. I think they are pretty good until
you need to tune or work on one.  If memory serves correctly:

To tune one: you have to disconnect and swing the air motor out of
the way.  If equipped, disconnect and remove the "rinky-tink" rail.
Disconnect and swing out of the way the brackets for the spool box.
Even then it's a tight fit for the rubber mutes and tuning lever.

To do any major regulation of the piano action, you almost need to
take the whole top player part out.  Which doesn't sound bad until
you realize that in order to do that, you have to _attach labels_ and
disconnect all of the tracker bar hoses, since the pneumatic stack is
_under_ the keybed.  (At least with an antique one, the player action
_and_ the pneumatic stack come out in one piece)

My personal recommendation would be to find an antique one that either
is restorable or one that has been fully restored (piano and player
action).  And a full size upright is going to sound better.

Duaine Hechler
Piano, Player Piano, Organ, Pump Organ Tuning, Servicing & Rebuilding
St. Louis, Missouri