Weber with 4 string unisons

[Jeannie Grassi]

Phil,
Yes, my understanding is that they were all made to his specifications
and were placed at strategic places where he might use them.  I actually
saw a program from a concert in Seattle that was dated a year or so
after the piano was manufactured and it stated something like: Featuring
the Weber concert grand.  

I think it would be very hard to prove that yours was his own personal
piano.  But who knows?  Every time I've spoken to someone who has found
one of these, he thought it was Paderewski's own personal piano.  But I
won't burst your bubble....do your research and see what you learn.
Please let us know.

jeannie

Jeannie Grassi, RPT
Registered Piano Technician
Island Piano Service
mailto:jcgrassi@earthlink.net

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Phillip Ford
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 8:06 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: RE: Weber with 4 string unisons


>Phil,
>Your observation about the case being suitable for travel makes perfect

>sense.  Since there were only a handful of these made, they still
needed 
>to travel quite a bit to meet the demands of Paderewki's his concert
tour.

Jeannie,

I had assumed that the piano that I have was Paderewski's personal piano
and 
had traveled around with him - I think he had his own railroad car(s).
Do 
you think that all the pianos of this model were manufactured for the
use 
of Paderewski and were stationed around the country to accomodate him?
It 
would be interesting to know if any of the other ones that are around
are 
set up for traveling in the way that mine is.  I'm also curious about
Weber 
documents that might still be around that might shed some light on 
this.  Jack Wyatt, what say you?

>
>
>I'm not surprised that most of the ones I've heart about have been in
poor 
>to disastrous shape.  They would present unique challenges to a
rebuilder, 
>like the four-string agraffes, just to mention one.

And the delaminating rim (in the case of my piano), to mention another.

>
>Taylor MacKinnon, in Portland, tunes one that has been made into a
piano 
>bar and we all know the sad life of a piano in that role.
>
>jeannie
>
>Jeannie Grassi, RPT

Like hooking Secretariat up to a plow.

Phil




Phillip Ford
Piano Service and Restoration
San Francisco, CA
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