Sealed pianos

[Les Smith]

Hi, Richard.

Since you brought up Bush and Lane, and since I promised you a lit-
tle background on them a couple of weeks ago, I'll continue on that
thread a moment.  Bush and Lane enjoyed a brief existence of only
about thirty years, but in that brief period of time produced some
of the finest upright pianos ever made by an American manufacturer.
Bush and Lane also produced a few grands (5'8") but their reputation
wqs  established largely upon their upright pianos.

The "Bush" in Bush and Lane referred to the two Bush brothers of Bush
abd Gerts fame. They were the money men, the commercoal end, so to
speak of the operation. That "Monster" upright sitting in your shop
right now reflects the genius of Walter Lane, who now, like Ernest
Knabe, is all but forgotten and relegated to a mere footnote in the
history of the American piano. He deserves to be remembered. As that
piano in your shop probably suggests.

Walter Lane garnered his piano-making skills by  working with Theodore
Heintzmann in Canada for a number of years and then with the A.B. Chase
company here in the states. Afterwards, Walter and the bush brothers
formed the Victor piano and Organ Company in Chicago. Later they changed
the name to Bush and Lane and moved the operations to Holland Michigan.

The production records tell you that Bush and Lane made about 63,000
pianos in their 30 years of existence. The actual figure is probably
lower than that. As you can see from the piano in your shop, the B&L
was a high-quality, expensively made instrument, right from the very
beginning. As the years went by, they just kept getting better.


Bush and Lanes were noted for their massive cases, heavy cupular
plate construction, and a series of soundboard, bridge and frame-
work innovations all designed to give them a quality of tone, pro-
jection and carrying power second to none. In this respect the B&L
could give similar vintage uprights produced by the likes of Steinway,
M&H, Knabe, Weber and  the like real "run for their money'. The single
best upright I've ever heard in terms of tone-quality, projection and
and carrying power was a 1927 Bush and Lane. In a list of the top 10,
three would be Bush and Lanes, the other Steinway, Weber, Knabe, etc.
They were THAT good.

Bush and Lane's production run can be divided almost in half. Those
instrument produced from their founding as the Victor Piano and Organ
Company until 1914, and those produced from 1914 to their demise in
1930. The date 1914 is of major significance. Prior to 1914 B&L pro-
duced regular, non-player instruments; primarily uprights, but also
a few of those 5'8" grands. The earlier, pre-1914 uprights used that
brass rail flange arrangement your found in your 1912-13 upright.
After 1914 they switched to a more standard wooden flange design. So
the reason you're having trouble finding astion parts for your upright
is that that particular design hs been out of production for about
85 years!

Bush and Lane's reputation, for those of you who are familiar with
the name, is largely based upon the pianos they built after 1914;
In 1914 B&L entered the player piano market by acquiring the by-then
famous "Cecilian" player name from the Ferrand Company which had been
making players since 1887. Walter Lane took the player operation in
hand and eventaully produced a player action as unique and of a
quality as high as that of his pianos. Standard action, by many is
regarded as the "Cadillac" of the player mechanisms. If so, than
Walter Lane's player action has to be regarded as the "Rolls Royce"
of them. In a word they were superbly designed.

	Where as most player actions like Standard, Simplex, Gul-
bransen and the like were made of wood, and prone to all the pro-
blems a porous material like wood could pose to a vacuum-operated
system, Walter lane chose to make  his player action out of metal.
Like his pianos the B&L player action of the twenties was an ex-
pensively made, limited-production mechanism of unique design. It
weighed in at 200 pounds, three times that of many of it's com-
petitors. By the twenties the always massive uprights were weighing
in at almost 750 lbs. Add to that a player mechanism of 200 pounds
and you wind up with the heaviset commercial player ever built. Total
weight approaching 1000 pounds!

>From first to last the Bush and Lane piano company of Walter Lane was
a first class operation. They produced expensive, limited-production
instruments of the highest quality. As they lived, so did they die.
The crash of '29 and the ensuing "Great Depression" killed off the
player piano industry almost overnight. In 1925, 3/4 of all the pianos
made were players. By 1930, they were almost all gone. By 1932 they
were all gone. Those companies that survived did so by merging with
other companies and corporation such as Aeolian. At the same time,
as they switched from making players to non-players, in many in-
stances the quality of the instruments produced began to drop off
markedly. The years after 1930 marked the beginning of the end of the
American piano Industry. Today Steinway and Baldwin remain, but the
rest are all gone. Bush and Lane, too.

In 1930 Walter Lane had a decision to make. He could either return
to making non-player pianos once again, and probably have to com-
promise quality in favor of economic survival like his competitors;
He could sellout his corporate soul and reputation to Aeolian, like
so many others chose to do; or he could simply call it quits, close
up shop, and let his reputation rest on what he had accomplished
during the  preceeding thirty years. A class act to the very end,
he chose the latter option. Whenever the old, fine-quality American-
nade pianos and player pianos are discussed, Walter Lane's name
deserves to be mentioned. Find one of his instruments in good, play-
able condition, or restore one to it's original condition, and, like
Richard, you'll discover why.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net