Hello Fred,  I cannot answer your question regarding the value of
a Concertola piano.  It's basically what the market will bear.

I can say, however, that I do have a complete operating piano
(Steinway XY, actually an M) with Concertola and some information
that may be of use regarding electrical and pneumatic circuits.
Unfortunately this information is not complete.

If you search the MMD Archives the information I posted there should
still exist.  If you cannot find it there, I can mail you scanned
photos of these diagrams on a CD but it would be faster and easier
for both of us if you did have a look there first.

If you manage to find an orphan piano Concertola (I think one was
mentioned on MMD a while back) you are in for some interesting
restoration times with both the electrical and pneumatic systems.

My first suggestion would be to restore the piano part first.  This is
pretty straight-forward although it requires some study regarding the
aluminum valve chest with horizontal valves and the magnetic interface.
The fan pneumatics have closer tolerances than the usual accordions and
are a tad trickier to recover.  For information on restoration of the
fan pneumatic system, I'm sure there are others on MMD who can help you
better than I.

While waiting for your Concertola you can fairly easily run the piano
from a MIDI interface using files available on CD from, I believe,
Spencer Chase.  If you do a MIDI conversion properly it will be
completely reversible should a proper Concertola turn up and you can
get it operational.

Please keep in touch if there is any further information I can
contribute.

Jim Heyworth,
Sechelt, B.C., Canada

 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/Concertola/index.html
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/KWIC/C/concertola.html
 [ -- Robbie