Re: 980905 MMDigest

Re the Steinway-Welte grand being auctioned in Cheshire, UK, this
will almost certainly have been a "red-paper" Welte.  Quite often
gutted Weltes had the stack thrown out but the control gear left in
situ.

Steinway had an agreement with Aeolian that they would not install
anyone else's player actions but Steinway-Weltes abound in Europe and
there is some supposition that the German-language version of the
agreement construed "player" as foot-operated player, which the Welte
was not.

If the piano is itself a good one and enough of the mechanism
survives to allow restoration, it's well worth the effort. Red-paper
Welte rolls (of which there are some terrible commercial recordings
around) sound entirely convincing on a well-restored grand. Or it
could be relatively easily converted to the Licensee format.

Dan Wilson, London