American-Aeolian was still making Knabes in their E. Rochester facility in 1979. By then they were nearly indistinguishable from the Chickerings being made in the same factory, and the quality was on a downward slope (poor sales, and a couple bankruptcies were on the horizon).<div> Your serial number forgery scenario is certainly possible; disappointing behavior surfaces all the time.</div><div>Patrick</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 9:33 PM, paul bruesch <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:paul@bruesch.net">paul@bruesch.net</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">I serviced a Wm. Knabe this morning. ~66" grand, serial number 192946. According to Pierce, that gives it a manufacturing date of 1979. The action has a 1979 date stamped on it as well. <br> <br>I seriously question the 1979 date though, because it doesn't look like that new of an instrument. Cheek block screw holes are flaky, i.e. threads beginning to strip, and actually, some other case part holes have been moved, apparently due to stripped threads. Lyre, pedalbox, trapwork look (to my relatively inexperienced eye) much older design than 1979.<br> <br>The date on the action looks to me as though it's the date of a rebuild. All new wippens/shanks/hammers. Pinblock is pretty obviously newer than the rest of the piano (except action parts.) Action brackets and rails look original. <br> <br>So why the 1979 serial number? Could it possibly be that a rebuilder "made up" a 1979 serial number to represent it as new? Or could the factory (assuming it was still around) have done the rebuild and re-numbered it? <br> <br>My customer bought the piano in the early 1990's, and don't know the history prior to that point.<br><br>Thoughts?<br><font color="#888888">Paul Bruesch<br>Stillwater, MN<br><br> </font></blockquote></div><br></div>