California 1852

[Les Smith]

On Fri, 23 Jan 1998, Barrie Heaton wrote:

> Is there a date when the first piano was made in the US and by who.

Actually the first pianos date from before the US was the US--Back to
when we were still considered "The Colonies" by you guys! :-) By 1775
Johann Behrend off Philadelphia was already building squares. History
records that it was while tuning one of those early pianos that Johann
broke a string and thus became the first American piano technician to
utter the phrase: "Hey, I'm gonna have to charge you extra for replacing
the string. It's not included in the price of the tuning!" The first
American upright dates from about 1889.

Les Smith