upright surprise!

[Les Smith]

On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, thart wrote:

> Dear List,                                                           
>                                                                          
>     I recently purchased an upright piano, circa.1866 ,in totally 
> original condition.........with a "bird-cage" type damper lever system , 
> made by .....CHICKERING.....! Ever heard of that one?                    
>                                                                          
>      Sincerely,                                                          
>                                                                          
>      Michael W. Hart                                                     
>      thart@tcnet.net

The good news about posting a question to Pianotech is that it gets
answered. The bad news is that you might not like the answer you get.
It is indeed rare to discover a upright piano built before the com-
pletion of the Trans-Continental Railroad, which is in all original
condition and still, apparently, tunable and playable,(which is what
you seem to be implying), unless it is a Steinway. No other "big name"
manufacturer of pianos I can think of exhibited a greater disparity of
quality between their grand and upright pianos than did Chickering. I
have seen many fine old Chickering grands that were indeed worth the
cost of rebuilding. I have never seen a single old Chickering upright
which warranted a second look. Self-destructing soundboards, bridges,
pinblocks literally seem to have been intentionally built into them,
in addition to odd-ball, disintegrating actions not worth the bother of
trying to salvage, even if one cold find replacement parts for them,
which you can't. By no stretch of the imagination were old Chickering
uprights anywhere NEAR the quality of similar vintage Steinways. No
way.
To further complicate matters, your old Chickering has an obsolete,
"birdcage" action. Most piano technicians, myself included, are of the
opinion that bird cages are for the birds and have no place in a piano.    
Its presence also tells you that while leaders like Steinway were al-
ready using over-stringing, Chickering was still plodding along with
old-fashioned straight stringing. 
What it all comes down to is this: While you do, indeed, have an old
and rare piano, those qualitites unfortunately don't add up to a VALU-
ABLE piano, as you might expect. There is virtually no market at all
for old Chickering uprights such as yours. Action parts have been
unavailable since the advent of indoor plumbing. Even trying to find a
technician who would be willing to try to tune and service one of those
archaic beasts is going to be difficult, to say nothing of EXPENSIVE. 
To be fair, I have to add, however, that each piano is an individual,
which has to be evaluated in terms of its own merits and short-comings.
Perhaps, years ago, Chickering's quality-control department did acci-
dentally let a good upright slip past them, and you now have it in
your possession. If so, it would be a first, because I certainly have
never seen another.
In the end, what really matters is what YOU think of the piano. If
you like the way it looks and sounds and plays, that's what's im-
portant. HOWEVER, I suggest that you don't give up your job in the hopes
that you can sell it for BIG BUCKS and retire on the proceeds, because
that just isn't going to happen. Ever.
You conclude you post by asking us if any of us have ever heard of an
old Chickering upright with a birdcage action. Most of us have. How-
ever, most of us have also heard of the Hindenburg, the Titanic and
Ground-Zero, too. The fact that we've heard of something doesn't mean
that we actually want to be there in person! :)  
Enjoy your piano.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net

PS Maybe Newton Hunt will have more to say on this subject when he re-
turns from vacation.