Chickering Grand

[Hank Lea]

Thanks Terry,
    Glad to know there is a chance this piano I'm bidding on might have 
the brass flanges. As far as the soundboard goes, I believe the piano 
has been in a dry climate for most of it's life which could mean it's in 
pretty good condition. But it is old.  I usually give the customer a 
price for a new board  and a price to repair the original board. Here in 
Colorado, we see a lot of older piano's with very nice boards. Most 
don't have any cracks and have some crown left. The integrity of the 
wood is really quite nice. Once rebuilt and the proper humidity 
reintroduced to the piano, the soundboard seems to put out a very nice 
tone.
    I also ask the potential customer to take digital photos of their 
piano and soundboard and bridges and email them to me. With a little 
instruction, the pictures are very revealing. I would love to put a new 
soundboard in all my rebuilds, but some customers just can't go the 
extra $ amount.
    At the end of my rebuilding estimate, I always say that once the 
piano is disassembled, prices may change due to unknown repairs.  There 
is always a little hesitation about  rebuilding a piano from out of 
state when you can't look at it.
    Thanks again for your info about the Chickering.

Hank Lea

Farrell wrote:
> I service an old Chickering quarter grand with brass flanges.
>  
> Just curious, how does one do a soundboard evaluation from long 
> distance? Or are you assuming (and logically I might add) that the 
> original board is shot?
>  
> Terry Farrell
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     The Quarter grands I've seen have three or so sections of pinblock
>     machine screwed
>     to the underside of the plate.  I have not seen any brass flanges
>     on a grand like there
>     are on some old Chickering uprights.
>
>     Albert.
>
>
>
>     On 2/14/07, *Hank Lea* <colopiano at gmail.com
>     <mailto:colopiano at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>         Dear fellow tech's,
>            I am biding a rebuilding job on a 1906 Chickering quarter
>         grand from
>         out of state. My question is to all, does this model have the
>         brass
>         whippen flanges and the brass hammer shank flanges?  Also,
>         does this
>         model have a sectioned pinblock?  Since I can't look at the
>         piano, I
>         thought maybe someone might have some info on this model. If
>         there is
>         anything else that might be unusual about this model, please
>         speak up. I
>         have worked on these before, but it's been a long time. Thanks!
>
>         Hank
>
>
>