[CAUT] Old Chickerings

[Delwin D Fandrich]

Jim,

As usual you make some good points. I, also, am a fan of the small Chickerings
and would like to add just one observation. 

While I have listened to many technicians criticize these pianos because they
are designed somewhat differently and working on them takes a certain degree of
creativity, it is rare to encounter an owner who does not love his or her
Chickering Quarter Grand. It is rare to find an owner willing to part with one.

Del

| -----Original Message-----
| From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On 
| Behalf Of James Ellis
| Sent: March 18, 2006 5:33 PM
| To: caut at ptg.org
| Subject: [CAUT] Old Chickerings
| 
| Let's not be quite so quick to bad-mouth those old 
| Chickerings, the latest of which was a Quarter Grand.  Yes, 
| the Quarter Grand was a fancy parlor grand, and a departure 
| from the big heavy models of the 1900-1910 period.  
| 
| As for the dampers that screwed on and damper wires that were 
| threaded on both ends - those were standard with Chickering 
| for years.  Did anyone notice that those wires are straight, 
| with no "dog-legs" to make the dampers line up? Those wippens 
| and shanks at diverging angles, and those repetition lever 
| springs that loop into silk cords on each end are a pain to 
| regulate, but once you get them regulated, they provide 
| repetition that's second to none.  There are other features 
| that may seem strange to many of you, but if you will look 
| more closely, you may see some logic to what Chickering did 
| from time to time - those pinblocks that were integrated with 
| the plate instead of the case, for example.
| 
| I own three 100-year-old Chickerings right now - a scale 116, 
| a scale 119, and a scale 131 concert grand.  Those wooden 
| action brackets have not swelled or shrunk one bit that I can 
| tell, and the actions stay regulated.
| They slide smoothly on the keybeds when the una corda is 
| used, and do not knock, despite the fact that there are no 
| glides in the key frames.
| 
| Jim Ellis
| 
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