[pianotech] Old Janssen piano

[Susan Kline]

I've tuned a Williams & Sons that was one of the sweetest big 
uprights I've ever encountered. The word "Janssen", on the other 
hand, brings up some very bad memories -- but those weren't 1913 
Janssens, but much later ones.

If a company is willing to just close down, taking its brand with it, 
instead of flogging its good name and reputation to some cheap 
opportunist firm, that is, to my mind, a very good thing. Bush & 
Lane, for instance ... when the Depression took down the bank which 
had kept them going, they beat a dignified retreat, taking their name 
with them. So one never finds a Bush & Lane crummy generic console or 
spinet out there.

Susan Kline

>The Williams & Sons upright piano sitting just behind me as I write 
>this has a similar story to tell...though not as long a train 
>ride.  My grandfather, a country preacher in central Illinois at the 
>time, bought it new in 1913, coincidentally...and it was shipped 
>downstate by train, then the last few miles by horse-drawn wagon in 
>just such a crate.  It traveled later (in that crate) around North 
>Dakota and Minnesota, ending up with my part of the family in about 
>1950 (though that crate, having been used as a fort by my uncles, 
>was long since reduced to kindling wood).  It came to me in about 
>1982 and now shares a room with a 1914 S&S "O."  The old upright 
>enjoys the distinction of never having been resold...as does that 
>Janssen in the picture!
>
>Stan Ryberg
>Barrington IL
>jstan40 at sbcglobal.net
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