Hey Patrick, I'll take a stab. As far as I can deduce from observation Aeolian continued to produce what I like to call "replicas" of Mason & Hamlins ( grands that is ) as long as they put that name on them. Elaborating, I mean by "replicas", that Aeolian produced the original designs and scales of the old M & H's but the execution began to deteriorate almost immediately. One of the most glaringly wierd things I have noted, especially about the A's was the phenomenon of plate casting growth. By that I mean that if you look at the thickness of the plate webbing in the tenor section of a pre-Aeolian A ( and the resulting angle of deflection of the strings as they pass through the agraffes on their way to the tuning pins ) and then contrast that to an Aeolian A you will find a much larger angle of deflection and much thicker webbing. I realize that all things being equal the deflection angle should not change but in fact it does! That fact serves only to illustrate the point that someone fell asleep on the job at Aeolian, and apparently never woke up! The best way I know of describing what I'm so inadequately trying to say is that the Aeolian M&H's seem like clones of a clone of a clone... you get my point? Being original designs they are usually able to be made quite good but I suspect that if you have reservations about the tone now you should be very careful in your evaluation of how good you think it can be. As far as value goes I am so far removed from the "left coast" that I could only quote midwestern prices. As such I can tell you that that piano would fetch +-$11,000.00 in this neighborhood. Hope this helps; donning flamesuit! Rod Pierce
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