Chickering Square Grands Question

[D.L. Bullock]

You must remember that when these pianos were built most everyone was
building good quality.  The brands that were not good quality usually did
not make many for very long, and it is unlikely that their piano lasted this
long.  People did not have the mindset that "Steinway is best and nothing
else matters" like they do now.  Steinway had not begun spending the
hundreds of Millions of Dollars they have spent in the last hundred years
convincing the public of that, yet.

Steinway square grands are fine,  I would not say their square was their
best piano at the time.  Emerson was on a par with Steinways in my opinion.
The several Hallet brands were also great pianos.  My personal favorite
happens to be Mathushek, who redesigned the square piano to become what it
became and the two Mathucheks I have done were pretty darn impressive.  The
inherent weakness in Mathusheks seems to be the damper tray seems to warp
and distort from weight and use.  You may need to make new ones or reinforce
and dewarp with metal.  Many of these pianos used standard piano supply
square grand actions.  After Mathushek, all the brands seemed to stop
experimenting with actions and settled on the same basic design.  I have
redone several Chickering small square grands and they are great little
pianos.  They have leather hammers. and vellum jacks, and damper levers.
They later built the hulking version of square grand but I have not done any
of them.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that when you restore a square
grand, you must make all new springs.  The vellum jack springs require
something that looks like a shorter upright hammer butt spring.  The flange
jack found in later hulking squares takes a small coiled expansion spring
about 1/4" long and as big around as a pencil lead.  These have to connect
to cord loops imbedded in the wood with the other end of the spring running
through wood.

I have not seen a Woodward and Brown.  I am sure there are many other brands
I have not seen as well.
D.L. Bullock
www.thepianoworld.com
St. Louis


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
Of Farrell
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 5:00 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: Chickering Square Grands Question


I own an 1863 Emerson square that I have been planning to restore at some
point. I see you are working on one now. What are your thoughts on the
general quality and desirability of the Emerson (compared to Mathushek,
Chickering, Steinway)? How old is yours? Thanks.

Generally speaking, what are some desirable square manufacturers, and
undesirable?

BTW, I am currently restoring an 1882 Woodward & Brown square.

Terry Farrell