Free Chickering quarter grand

[Alan Barnard]

Coincidently, I just returned from tuning one.

You didn't provide much info, but here are my observations. The ones I've seen have plywood action brackets. Seem to work just fine and would be easy to replace/duplicate if necessary.

1. They have a multi-section pinblock with some strange angles cut into it -- difficult to replace.

2. The one I just tuned has an installed (by me) Dampp-chaser and is one of the most stable pianos in my customer base. I don't know if that is characteristic, more generally of the 1/4's but this one doesn't move more than a cent or two a year. If I would dishonest, I think I could just go through it, sweetening the unisons, and walk out the door.

3. The one's I've seen actually have surprisingly low inharmonicity and a fairly sweet tone, but a tendency to have a very pinched tone and lousy sustain in the 5th and 6th octaves.

If you don't want it, I would be interested; I'm not sure how popular they would be in an urban environment, but here in the shticks, I know I could find an interested party.

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Greg Newell" <gnewell at ameritech.net>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Received: 2/3/2008 11:07:21 PM
Subject: Free Chickering quarter grand


>A customer of mine if giving his piano away. Does anyone think this is worth
>taking?

>Greg Newell
>Greg's Piano Forté
>www.gregspianoforte.com
>216-226-3791 (office)
>216-470-8634 (mobile)