Vintage Chickering

[Steve Ganz]

I just looked at one (8' similar era) last week for a customer who 
wanted to rebuild it.  The soundboard was shot, filled with screws, 
flat, cracked, painted, etc.  Unfortunately the plate was mortised into 
the case on all sides.  You could just see the edge of the plate screw 
heads poking out from under the inner rim on top of the plate.  Without 
removing the entire inner rim above the plate this plate could not be 
removed.  No removal of plate, no fix of soundboard.  The pin block was 
open and would be impossible to replace without moving the plate, which 
of course cannot be done economically.  Unfortunately, the pin block 
itself was in too poor condition to plug and redrill.  By the way, the 
action parts were not replaceable.  Nothing available that fit.  Even 
the hammers were difficult because of their light weight.  Regulation 
was very difficult.  Rocker capstans and turn in damper wires, etc.  It 
sounded awful...  My advice for you is to leave it alone if it is like 
the one I saw.  Classic definition of a time and money pit.