Chickering Square Grands Question

[Farrell]

You wrote:

> 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.

Why do you have to make all new springs? Do these break easily? All appear to be quite well and functional on my Woodward & Brown. In this particular case I am only "refurbishing" the action - bushings, hammers, regulation, and little else - the state of wear of this action is on a par with a lightly used 50 year old piano - it is really is quite nice shape. Unfortunately, the owners of this piano are more interested in the appearance of the piano rather than its performance. The only way I could talk them into restringing it was to point out the cosmetic benefits! Go figure.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "D.L. Bullock" <dlbullock@att.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 1:18 PM
Subject: RE: Chickering Square Grands Question


> 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
> 
>