[pianotech] Restoring Museum Pianos

Susan Kline skline at peak.org
Wed Jan 5 13:23:58 MST 2011


On 1/5/2011 9:13 AM, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:
> But it was that wackoness that makes their pianos so very interesting. Which
> would you rather have; the variety Chickering came up with or stagnate
> design extending for the same length of time?
I always like the wacko designs, such as some really neat things I've 
found in George Steck upright.

Those old Chickerings have a particular, smoky kind of sound which can 
be very appealing. And the Brown actions aren't that hard to get working 
(if I can do it from scratch just by inspecting it and puzzling it out.) 
It's not like we have to get concert-level performance of major concerti 
out of a piano like this. Nobody is likely to perform Islamey on it 
before an audience of thousands.

It's like computers and their constant (and for me unwelcome) 
enhancements and changes. I never ask a computer to run an operating 
system written after the date of its manufacture -- it is unlikely to do 
that well. And perhaps some of these very old pianos shouldn't have to 
perform difficult music written more than (say ...) fifty years after 
manufacture?

Susan Kline
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