Schomacker grands

[Robert Goodale]

Yesterday I got a call to go and look at a 1925 Schomacker
grand.  In spite that I have been in this business for
multi-years and tuned thousands of pianos I had never
encountered one of these.  The client had purchased it a
year or so ago for $1,000 and then a friend refinished it
for another $1000.00.  Of course the description I got over
the phone was that it "just needed to be tuned up a little
and some keys had to be replaced".  What I found was the
typical 75 year old worn out piano with busted up ivory key
tops, flat hammers, dead bass strings, pin block barely
holding... you know the drill.

What I didn't expect to find is the remarkable quality of
this instrument.  Verbatim this piano is a virtual cross
between a Steinway M and a Mason & Hamlin A.  The case and
action were M&H through and through.  Even the music rack
had those typical Mason & Hamlin rounded fronts and the
molded bead around the rim.  The plate was all steinway.
The logo was in the same place with nearly identical writing
across the capo bar and it had the old style Steinway plate
tits running around the edges.  The bottoms of the struts
flared out like a Steinway too.  Under the high treble side
of the rim there was what looks exactly like the steinway
"bell" found on Steinway Bs and Ds.  If I didn't know it
wasn't, I'd swear from the trap work that it was a
Steinway.  The only difference was that the sostunuto was
inside the piano where it belongs.

No doubt that with a complete restoration this piano would
be a real gem.  They were not to excited about paying for a
rebuild job and there wasn't much I could do in it's present
condition.  They may, (I hope), sell it to me for just what
they have into it.

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV