Mason&Hamlin 3118 revisited

[pianoguru at cox.net]

Mason & Hamlin was bought by Falcone in 1983.  I don't know if or when they might have been built in Memphis, but they were never a stencil piano.  A stencil piano is a generic design, to which the manufacturer would afix any name that the buyer requested, to the extent that the buyer held the legal right to use that name.  Throughout the Aeolian years, they were true to the Mason designs.  There were, to be sure, weaknesses in the product under Aeolian.  My biggest complaint was with the action.  Despite Aeolian's shortcomings, you can still hear the "heart and soul" of Mason in them.

Frank Emerson

---- mccleskey112 at bellsouth.net wrote: 
> Thanks Paul: I was pretty sure it was built during the Aeolean period but I was hoping that it was still being built in the old factory rather than in the Memphis factory, as were the 80's Masons.
> Later.
> 
> Gerald McCleskey RPT
> Shreveport, LA
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Paul T Williams 
>   To: Pianotech List 
>   Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 7:43 AM
>   Subject: Re: Mason&Hamlin 3118 revisited
> 
> 
> 
>   Gerald, 
> 
>   I beleive this is an "Aeolean" stencil piano.  They bought several names back in the 30's and 40's and really did a number on those great old names.  Not nearly the grand quality of those old "real" M&H's 
> 
>   Have fun with it!   
> 
>   Paul 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>         <mccleskey112 at bellsouth.net> 
>         Sent by: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 
>         02/19/2008 04:50 PM Please respond to
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>               Subject Mason&Hamlin 3118 revisited 
> 
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> 
> 
>   Hey: Yesterday I went to service M&H # 3118. It turned out that it was really # 57076. # 3118 was, as you might expect, the shop number. 
>   It turns out that it was built in 1949 or 50. Is that a good year or not? 
>   Thanks for your efforts. The moral of this story: never trust a client to give you the serial number. 
>     
>   Gerald McCleskey RPT 
>   Shreveport, LA 
>