Pianotech

Have a customer with an Aeolian GX baby grand piano with serial number 301842. Aeolian has been through so many ownership's and associations that it can sometimes be impossible to track one of their serial numbers. No serial numbers in Pierce. Bluebook has a lot of numbers and their relationships with many of the Aeolian owners names they were associated with, but there seems to be a big hole around 300000. Owner says she was 7 when her mother purchased it new about 70 years ago. I'll probably just call it 1946 and let it go, but I'm still curious. 

Geoff, 

The date isn't in the Musicians Pianos Atlas editied by S.K. Taylor either. I think you might just want to say, " 1946 is a good date to give as the GX's  piano build date and I'm sticking to it."  Remember that 1946 wasn't all bad, a piano tuning cost about $6 or $8 or less, gas was 15 cents a gallon, Tupperware was the new rage, the bikini came on the market and Steven Spielberg was born in 1946 in order to create Star Wars billion dollar movies many years later.   

I heard there was great rejoicing in the piano tech. community when Aeolian finally went out of business. Of course the same is still going on with piano builders abroad buying or using highly respected American piano brand names on the pianos they build.  Everything old is new again.

Bob - farmhouseview@gmail.com

Hi Geoff,

Did you ever get your question answered? I have the same issue currently on-going with an Aeolian I just purchased. I have what appears to be a 1981-1985, Aeolian upright (AU-48), full-sized cabinet, near-flawless ultra glossy white, with a serial number above 312800. I can't be sure about this yet but according to my research thus far, I'm starting to believe that any Aeolian piano with a serial number above 300,000 is a piano that originates from one of three possible special situations:

1. A specialty piano produced for a custom order. These custom ordered pianos deliver an exceptional, bright, full-range of quality sound, tonality, and resonance while maintaining the highest possible levels of quality craftsmanship for extreme durability.
2. A specialty piano made by Aeolian intended to be a gift from the Aeolian company to a special friends or family recipient.
3. This is the most probable according to my research thus far, any Aeolian piano with a serial number higher than 300,000 was specifically made for a celebrity figure or personality.

I'm fairly certain the piano I have, an Aeolian with a serial number of 312,800+ was originally made for either Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys or Roger Christian who wrote several Beach Boys songs such as Little Deuce Coupe, Shutdown and Don't Worry Baby.

I will now try to upload some photos.