Farrell.....
There are two old Chickering 6ft+ grands in Helena. One belongs to a doctor and was rebuilt by Peter Briant RPT of Gt. Falls, MT. The other belongs to an antique buff couple. This one came with the home they purchased and reportedly was "dead" according to a few other tuners from years back. In any case I looked the piano over and agreed to rerstore it. Someone had replaced the brass flanges with typical wooden hammer flanges. There were a couple of craacks inthe sound board etc., but I got this piano running real well. All the bass strings were replaced with Mapes made to order strings. When I got through, that piano had the same great sound as the other one. To me those are the very best pianos in Helena. Sadly, neither one gets any serious use. The owners of the first one have the piano for it's looks mostly. It gets played when a relative visits on holidays. The other one may get some use, don't know for sure, but I havent been called to tune if for a few years now. Anyway they both have that great "Chickering" sound.
Dick Beaton RPT Helena, MT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 4:48 AM
Subject: Re: chickering
> I do so enjoy learning about the older pianos.
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