To those who wish to continue in old dusty myths and are not interested in having your horizons expanded, delete this message as if it were spam. <<To all, <<The comments re. trashing Square Grands is not appreciated. These <<instruments are a viable part of the historic evolution of our beloved <<instruments.... <<Regards, <<Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon) Thank you, Mr. Garrett, I was really getting annoyed reading about how the square grand was never anything to consider musical. I have restored numerous square grands. I have several I am working on at the moment. I am sought out by people all over the US for the purpose of restoring them. I am not looking for any more to restore at this time. It will be another year minimum before I could do another one. Luckily, I do not have that many people willing to spend the money to have them done. They are not a joy to rebuild but they are a joy to play when restored correctly and completely. You cannot expect too much from any piano that age that has been simply refurbished or half restored. They are a piece of our musical history. A square grand is not a modern piano and can never be nor ever sound like one. Concerning the American Square Grand piano, 90% of all pianotechs will repeat the same old saws: "Oh they never were much of a piano," "those things cannot be restored" "They are nothing but trouble." "Nobody makes parts for them." This is a very old myth to which many or most piano technicians subscribe. Well, I am here to tell you that yes, they were and can be very good quality pianos. They CAN be restored and I do make parts for them. They are a royal pain in the neck to restore. Most technicians cannot do it. Others do not want to bother. Often the technician must recover the hammers with hard leather, and successive layers of softer leather. Some of them layer up with thin hammer felt. The early square pianos use Vellum actions for which I get chrome tanned unborn sheepskin. I get the trimmings as the rest of the skins are sent to Jerusalem for the making of Torahs. This special parchment leather will last 50-100 years. Normal parchment will only last 6-12 years in our present day smog laden atmosphere. The later square grands have wooden hammer butts that must be refelted and releathered. This is more work for the technician who endeavors to actually restore a square grand. These are similar to an upright butt. No one has made these in recent years, so I had to have some made. I also had to felt and leather them myself. I now have 1000 of these for my next 10 or so square grand restorations. I usually replace normal grand actions with Renner, but Renner would not be bothered making these, but now I can replace all of them on all my squares. While most pianos have their large soundboard glued to heavy timbers all around its perimeter, the square grand soundboard on the other hand is a triangular shape and is glued to heavy timbers on two of the legs of the triangle. The other long side is glued to a strip of wood only about an inch or less thick. This means the piano is at a distinct disadvantage for holding the pressure against the strings. Granted they are not high tension scales but they were able to resist the pressure only so many years and then they began to weaken. The pianos are simply phenomenal. They lasted over 100 years before they reached their present condition. Many of them are 120-150 years old. What piano could be playable at that age? Having restored around 10 of these in my career, I can say that people who expect the worst when they sit down to the piano reach an epiphany when they play a restored square grand. Concert pianists play one and they immediately begin making mental lists of literature that would sound good on the tone of the square grand. Their tone is amazing. They are not and never can be a modern piano. They do sound like the missing link between the Mozart fortepiano and the modern concert grand. When I was restoring a Mathushek square a few years ago, and a 7-foot Broadwood wing shape grand, I took the low A string over to the Broadwood and found that it was several inches longer than the same string on the Broadwood. I discovered that same string on a square I now have in the shop was 11 inches shorter than the same one on a Steinway concert grand. The older original square piano descended from the clavichord, virginal, and spinet, all of which were rectangular in shape. When hammers were added to wing shaped harpsichords they also had to add hammers to square shaped instruments as well. The reason for this is because the wing shaped harpsichord was considered the concert instrument that was used in the churches and performance halls. The smaller, softer, rectangular clavichord, virginal, and spinet were considered home instruments. Very few musicians could afford a full sized wing shaped harpsichord in their home. For one thing, homes were so small that the common people had to have the smaller instruments. The same was true for the square pianos. The early ones which date all the way back to the earliest pianos (pre 1800) were wood framed and low tension -- but not low enough. There are very few of these nowadays as most of them collapsed from the force. The diagonal corners tend to attempt to pull together and fold up the instrument. This is why often such early instruments (if still around) usually will not sit flat. The corners closest to the tuning pins and hitch pins of the bass strings are up off the ground so the instrument rocks on its two lower corner legs. When restoring these we have to decide whether to add reinforcement or just leave it. If the instrument is still in existence then it is probably well enough built to withstand another hundred years of being strung. Chickering seems to have been the earliest maker of square pianos with cast iron plates. I have restored several of them dating to 1830s to 1850s They have cast iron and they seem to be the brand most often found from this era. Their hammers are leather, not felt usually. (We have to completely recover them, too.) They are small, but slightly larger than the "T Gilbert" pianos or other early squares. The tone of the American square grand has a huge Lisztian bass and tinkly Mozart treble. Most of them have only two strings per unison. That and their relatively small soundboard make them a smaller overall sound fit for chamber music and Victorian parlors for which they were made. The musicians especially like them for accompanying art songs: Hugo Wolf, song cycles, and such. With the advances made by Mr. Mathushek when he designed the hulking, heavy duty square grand piano, the square piano became known as the square grand. Technically the term square grand only applies to the big models with the cast iron plate. Go to Alfred Dolge's book "Pianos and Their Makers" for more on Mathushek and his square grand designs. Suffice it to say that square grands are a viable piano in many or most cases. I have seen a few that I would not restore, and I also have junked one that was just too far gone to bother with. I have four of my restored instruments in historic museum houses. I have two Steinways, a Hallet and Cumston and an Emerson under restoration now. When properly restored, square grands can be as good as any piano, and will stay in tune, and will perform for several decades. They will also be coveted by concert pianists who take an interest in the history of piano music. Many pianists rightfully play Bach on the harpsichord, Mozart on the fortepiano, and use period instruments when possible. The square grand is such a period instrument. It is closer to a fortepiano than a modern piano. Its sound is appropriate for music written from late Beethoven until the modern piano was developed in the late 1800's. When we restore square grands they have sold for $30K to $50K. They are not cheap. They also take longer to restore. When restoring such pianos my shop fee minimum is $10,000 and if there is damage to repair that goes up. I have one here built by St. Louis Piano Manufacturing Co., who went out of business in 1888. It is fully restored, plays very well and is for sale for $30,000.00 which is negotiable. In St. Louis I find I can purchase unrestored squares for $100 to $500.00. I have sold Steinway square grands, working and unrestored, for as much as $3,500.00. This unrestored amount varies greatly from other markets around the country. I could never find a square in Dallas for less than $1,500.00. We have many more of them here in St. Louis so they are cheaper. It is fine for Mr. Page to turn his square grands into workbenches. I knew a woodworker who built desks, dining tables, and buffets out of the many he trashed. I only know that every piano that is sent to the dumpster increases the value of my historic, restored square grands by several hundred dollars. D.L. Bullock St. Louis www.thepianoworld.com -----Original Message----- From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf Of Joseph Garrett Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 8:59 AM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: Chickering Square Grands Question To all, The comments re. trashing Square Grands is not appreciated. These instruments are a viable part of the historic evolution of our beloved instruments. Yes, many are only worthy of being used as a work bench or boat anchor or......?! However, the Chickerings, Steinways, Mathuscheks, Mason & Hamlins of the Square grand era are usually worthy of consideration. I would ask a question: How many of you would like to hear what the composers and performers, of the 18th and the early 19th centuries heard? If you have a Square grand, in good condition and tuned to the appropriate temperament of the period, of the composer's period, you be hearing what they heard. Is this not, in itself, enlightening and worthy of a more considerate attitude towards these instruments???? As for the Square Grand in question, it sounds like this one is a "one-of-a-kind" special order one, that, IF documentation can be obtained, as to it's historic background, etc. it is valuable to those who find that to be interesting If you take the proper attitude towards these instruments, quite possibly you will knock off the B.S. towards them. To me it simply shows the ignorance of the one verbalizing such garbage. (Flame suit/helmet/boots firmly in place!) Regards, Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)
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