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I recieved "the" call from my rebuilder yesterday. I can come play the Mason & Hamlin CC on Monday. It has been 16 months since I bought this piano and I'm excited to finally play it. He has already put 4 tunings on it and it's starting to settle down. He said he was pleasantly surprised and the treble was wonderful. "This piano is better than when it left the factory floor."

So on Monday morning around 11 I'll toodle on down to San Ramone and see what's what. I'll give an open invitation to anyone here that would like to join me and play it, possibly give input for any final adjustments that might be needed. Let me know.

Too cool. Hey, who's your rebuilder?

Frank Bidinger, a class act all around.

Congratulations!

Keep us posted!

Rick

After 16 months I cannot even imagine how you feel but it must be awesome! Congrats

Hopefully, it's everything you wished for. Congratulations!

Wished I wasn't working Monday morning!

Looking forward to hearing about it.

I hope it is everything you want.

We need more details...

True, but still not as long as gestation for an elephant which is around 22 months. I hope it sounds great!

Congrats - may the piano ring the bells as for the new Pope!

Norbert

Details? Pictures will be posted on Monday. The reason it took so long is we made a decision to use a refinisher in Nevada and it took the long way there and back. Black lacquer hand rubbed to a satin finish.

I saved the beast as it was literally hours from being dismanteled and thrown in a dumpster. New pinblock, bridgework, soundboard retained, New Abel action and hammers, GC bass strings, etc..

Thanks for all the well wishes, but the sad truth is I will not be able to bring this fine instrument at home. It was more a mission of mercy.

And a baby elephant weighs a lot less.

Yeah baby I got to see and play the CC2 today and it was a joy. This piano was in bad shape and the refinsh job is good but it is not as high end as you could get. I'm not sure if spending all the extra money would have produced that much of a better result. Hopefully it will end up on a stage where it will shine.

The Abel action is very nice and responsive, a bit tight and the hammers are still packing so things felt a little "spongy" but not an issue. The bass was as you might expect from a CC2, big, rich and smooth. Compared to the same era Hamburg D I played last week the poor D sounded anemic. The section from c3 -c5 was surprising for me and much stronger than expected, the tone was mellow and pleasing. No killer octave problems and that was a concern since we did not replace the soundboard. Sustain is strong and the tone sounded like other Masons I've played. What I noticed was how easy it was to get changes in color, almost like I was an artist and could splash a burst of color on the canvas. The piano came out as well as I could have imagined.

A magnificant piano indeed, Swarth!

Congratulations again and again!

Rick