Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Rare Heintzman Transposing Piano

I came across a rare one the other day and decided that I would drop by and show some of the interested folks here.

This is a rare Heintzman & Co. Transposing upright piano, which used to be produced some time back. This instrument has 98 keys and songs can be played in 10 different keys …… 11 in fact, including the one you are in. In 35 yrs. of service to the industry I have only ever seen two of these.

For those not familiar with Picasa, when you click on the link here, there is an option above the first picture to see as a slide show. This is the best viewing, as you can adjust your time for each frame.

Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/silverwoodpianos/HeintzmanCoTransposingPiano

Gee Dan, you must not get out much

We have had 6 of these through the shop, seen 4 others and have one in the shop right now.
The one in the shop right now has a fancy book matched walnut case.
They are quite cool.
And yes rare, compared to traditional Heintzmans.

Dan
There are two of these in my client base that I tune every year. A third one a few years ago that I did extensive repairs on. Someone tried transposing w/o using the clutch and snapped a bunch of stickers. Pretty creative bit of repair work. Very cool pianos.

Hey Rod and Richard,

Not getting out you are right, too much work in the shop…… No wonder I haven’t come across too many of these instruments, you two are hogging them all to yourselves… hehehe

Cheers………….

Irving Berlin used a transposing piano..not sure of the make/model..

I have a regular customer with one too. It's the only one I've seen in thirty years of tuning. I guess that means I don't get out much either. It's not the kind of shape as the one in your pictures though, all original.

I've always wondered if Irving Berlin's piano was a Heintzman. There couldn't have been that many manufacureres that made these.

I just had someone trying to sell a rebuilt one to me yesterday. They are reasonably common. Yes, Irving Berlin played one, but then Sohmer made one for him and he switched. I believe he had 2 Sohmers, but my memory aint so good.

Steve

Ok so this makes a total of twenty that I have found across Canada so far, in a country of 30 million people.

It was a Heintzman. I've seen the one in the Jack Wyatt Museum in the PTG Home Office Museum in Kansas City. There's another in the Cantos Music Museum in Calgary (www.cantos.ca).

People have said that he always played in Db, but that's hard to know for sure.

--Cy--

A better mechanism would require engaging the clutch before the keyboard could be moved.

Berlin had several transposing pianos over the years. He was associated with Sohmer, but the one that was in the Smithsonian exhibit was something else, as I recall.

I just ran into one of these last week. It was a Heinztman from 1897 and is in surprisingly good condition. Needs a bit of work with a couple of broken capstan stickers because the clutch operated by the middle pedal wasn't releasing the capstans from the keys properly and also a couple of broken hammer shanks, but otherwise in good condition for an old piano. The case was marvelous.

Well, I must NEVER get out then...I've never seen one in all these years!! Thanks for posting Dan!

RPD

Can you tell us more about the special process of preserving the original decal when refinishing?

Hello Lawrence,
Welcome to the forum. Yes the clutch if not set up properly will not release pressure from the inverted capstans. This causes them to drag on the tops of the key levers and will snap some of them at the flanges.
Just a week ago I got a call from a fellow on Vancouver Island who has one that was damaged somewhat in a home fire. So now, since May of 2008, we are up to the known whereabouts of 25 of these in Canada.

Well RPD, if you do ever get out, come this way and I can show you one of them up close and personal.

Randy I can go one better, I will show you right here. If you left click once on this link, and then left click once on the first photo, top left, this will enlarge the photos so that you can read the text below each frame.
This is a tricky process, it only works with some decals, sometimes the process damages the decal too much, sometimes especially with thick old varnish it does not work at all. Here is the link........
http://picasaweb.google.com/silverwoodpianos/ObsoleteDecalRestoration#

Hi Dan, thanks for sharing that, indeed that is a very artistic process, I wondered if it was not possible those days to scan and have a decal made in gold color, if necessary ?

Does some try to do so ? A customer of mine is looking for that actually, may be he will find a way to have something done, it is only a matter of paper quality and the good print (offset ?)

Of course there may be different quality and thicknesses.
The market is not so poor for those kind of things , but may be originally it was done with a "silk frame" based process (where paint is thrown on a mask so it have some thickness)

Then it may be very expensive to obtain the same.


Happy New .....

Hello Isaac!

Bonne année!! Best of luck for 2010.

Yes you can get the computer to scan the old decal and have it made on a cutter like truck letterings. These types of decals would be high-speed vinyl (plastic). And some do not like the look of this, including myself. I find it looks cheaply done because there is no border and some of the decorative inks are missing.The vinyl comes in different thicknesses and colours of gold, some are metallic flake and some not .. High gloss and satin too.

Yes to find the proper paper is the question. I have looked around for that previous and finally gave up. I am sure there is someone who would do the silk screen, but like you say it would be expensive……

Some people like to have the old decal restored because they like the antique look. Usually I only do the Heintzman decals, the one on the fallboard, that you can still purchase, and this one which is underneath the top flap on the uprights. Both of these are difficult to do because they are 14 separate pieces.

Interesting to note that it takes exactly the same amount of time to do this process on the fallboard decal as it does to install a new decal of the same sort. So I inform the customer and they decide which one they like best.

Nice and interesting pictures Dan. I don't think I've ever run across one of these pianos either.