Old Chickering Concert Grand

[Roger C Hayden]

Thanks, Clark

So it can be 1872 after all.  And you're right, it is a 33B.  

This one has been a circus.  I saw it 10 - 15 years ago for sale, in a
windowless trailer, all in pieces, full of mud wasps, no strings, rust
and water marks.  $1500.00  I didn't want it.  Then a client of mine
bought it thinking another tech was going to fix it cheap.  It didn't
happen.  So after a loose estimate with plenty of buffer built in, it
came here.

At least the original dissembler had measured the plain strings, I had
that much.  Also the tapered tuning pins still had wire on them, I
checked the measurements and they were accurate.   Bass strings came with
it but belonged to an old upright.  

The board was concave from the top, lots of splits and rib separation, 
But we couldn't sell a new board.  The directive was:  "Make it look good
and play a little.  It's going to be looked at."   OK.  So I dried the
board, forced it up, pulled the ribs back in, filled the cracks with
spruce wedges & refinished.  I have downbearing!!  So with that
encouragement I sent string specs to David Sanderson and he rescaled and
made bass strings.  Tensions were actually raised a little to gain
quality.  Dave assured me the structure was beefy enough.  The scaling
has rich sounding triads well into the bass.

I sent hammer samples to Renner and Lloyd Meyers had them match, drill
and shape a new set.  I had trouble as you guessed getting all of them to
play.  The problem was the weak old springs.  So I bought brass wire and
made many new springs.  This old gal is really starting to talk.  

The damper system was my real headache.  Missing parts, no screwed on
flanges, and everything in boxes.  That took some time figuring out, but
they work good now.

This has been quite an education, and I'm over budget.  So the final
tweaks are truly a labor of love since no more cash is due.  The owner
(and I) were not expecting this thing to come out this good.  A happy
ending.

Thanks for the info.

Roger C. Hayden, RPT
Clarks Summit, PA

On Wed, 13 Oct 1999 23:17:26 -0200 Clark <caccola@net1plus.com> writes:
> Hi Roger,
> 
> This sounds like a nice piano. We rebuilt a 33B of about the same 
> size and
> age, straight strung amd with about the same action. The action is 
> probably
> an Edwin Brown action, Conrad Hoffsommer estimates its use from 1843 
> to ca.
> 1890, as an option in the later years - but I'm not familiar with 
> any grands
> with the flat wood plates you mentioned. Normally there is a kind of
> oversized, flat drop screw to adjust the hammer line, but older 
> squares have
> plates.
> 
> Did you replace the hammers or strings? The action won't work with 
> heavy
> hammers, and the bass strings rarely corrode
> 
> Chickering retained agraffes in various guises for some time; often 
> treble
> hammers have nearly all of their felt removed from the bottom sides 
> for
> clearance. Likewise, I think Chickering retained straight stringing 
> as an
> option in grands for some time, though they introduced overstringing 
> in
> squares fairly early on.
> 
> Straight strung Chickerings with Brown actions are my favorites.
> 
> Clark
> 

Roger C. Hayden,  RPT
Clarks Summit, PA