J&C Fischer Uprights

[Edwin A. Hilbert]

Richard, You asked if anyone has ever come across a Fischer two stringer
upright.  Well, it just so happens that I have one in my small collection
of unusually pianos.  Yes, it is an interesting little thing. c. 1900
Ed Hilbert RPT
Vermont Chapter

On Tue, 18 Feb 1997, Richard Moody wrote:

> Les,
> 	Thanks for the info. More  More.   Anybody ever come across a
> Fischer  two stringer upright or others?  I'm pretty sure it was a
> Fischer. Not sure of the vintage but perhaps 1890-1900.    I enjoyed
> tuning it.  And the surprising thing was that it was LOUD.  Made me
> ponder again why there are three strings.   But that's another thead.
>  I take it that APC means American Piano Co (as in Am pi co), and AC
> means Aeolian Corp. And the brass key pins, didn't the center rail
> pins have a narrow oval top to ride in the bushing?
>
> Richard The Ponderer
>
> ----------
> > From: Les Smith <lessmith@buffnet.net>
> > To: pianotech@byu.edu
> > Subject: J&C Fischer Uprights
> > Date: Monday, February 17, 1997 10:33 PM
> >
> >
> > Greetings All!
> >
> > Just a brief note on the J&C Fischer upright thread. As Keith
> point-
> > ed out, generally, when you find an upright piano with a
> lost-motion
> > compensator and a working sostenuto mechanism, it bespeaks a fine-
> > quality instrument. This is certainly the case with early, pre-APC
> > and AC Fischers, which traced their roots to the earliest Fischers
> > which were originally made in Naples, Italy, beginning at the end
> of
> > the eighteenth century. Around 1839, the two sons, John and Charles
> > immigrated here to the states and and sought to continue the tradi-
> > tion of building fine quality pianos. The next time you have the
> op-
> > portunity to do some action-work on one of those early, pre-APC
> > Fischer uprights, if you remove a few of the keys. you're apt to
> > find something very rarely encountered anymore: solid brass keypins
> > at both the balance and front rails. Fischer continued using brass
> > keypins longer than just about any other American manufacturer. The
> > pre-APC Fischer instruments were very highly-regarded in their day.
> > Unfortunately, those early Fischer uprights share a common failing
> > with similar-vintage Chickering uprights in that as they aged they
> > were prone to develop serious soundboard, bridge, and pinblock
> prob-
> > lems. For this reason, many of the older Fischer uprights
> encounter-
> > ed today, are not worth the cost of rebuilding. However, as Vince
> > will tell you, each instrument has to be evaluated on its own indi-
> > vidual merits. And, whatever their condition might be today, those
> > brass keypins certainly added a touch of class.
> >
> > Les Smith (Still hanging on by his finger-nails!)
> > lessmith@buffnet.net
> >
>