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I recently came across a Chickering Quarter Grand Scale 121 piano that I was told was 60 years old. It is consignment at a piano store. They are asking $3000. It is horribly out of tune. I requested/suggested that they have it tuned. It would be easier to sale I would think. They said it would be $4500 if they tuned it, which I thought was crazy. I have searched and searched for information about a chickering quarter grand scale 121. All I have found is that before WWII chickerings were pretty well the best and that the scale 121 was first made in 1909. It this piano is 60 years old it would be younger than pre-WWII pianos. Any information into this piano would be greatly appreciated. Are the strings likely to break when tuned, was that model a good model, is it worth $3000. If I just wanted it as furniture it looks beautiful. But I wanted more than a piece of furniture. I want a good piano.

Thanks!

Is it the same model as the Quarter Chicken Grand they sell at Colonel Sanders?

What brought up KFC? I must have missed something in the OP. Or I don't "get" the joke.

As far as the piano, I am not familiar with Chickerings, so I defer completely to others.

For a tuning to add $1500 is completely ridiculous. Even if every string broke while tuning, it wouldn't cost that much.

The risk of buying a piano that is terribly out of tune is that it is likely that the piano will not stay in tune. I have seen this in at least one Chickering Quarter Grand. Correcting this is very expensive. I suggest that you pass on this piano.

I think this model piano was phased out about 1920, if not earlier, so it is older than the seller claimed. 60 year old pianos are rare, as piano production pretty much stopped during the war. It is not uncommon for people to have wrong information about the age of a piano. A responsible piano store should have some idea, but all too often, they do not.

I was thinking it was probably older than 60 years. I've got a piano tuner that's going to look at it this afternoon. I don't think anyone will buy sounding the way it does for the current price tag or anyone paying $1500 for them to tune it before buying. If we are able to get them to tune it without paying for it and it holds its tune, do you think it would be a good piano. Or being it may be 100 years old could I expect it to start falling apart?

I have done restoration work on a couple of Chickering Quarter Grands. They are decent pianos, but they have some quirks. The biggest peculiarity of them is the way the action is laid out, with the parts at an angle.

Some of them have dampers that do not work well, because the damper heads rock on the wire. Modern damper heads have a groove for the wire that prevents that. Also, the wires are threaded into the underlever. All that should be updated, which adds to the expense.

Turns out there was a broken key, something broken on the inside and so far out of tune the tuner doubted it could be tuned up to pitch and even if it was that it would probably fall within 3 months. Maybe another will come along.