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I can send my technician over to look at a 1907 chickering and son's 6 foot grand. Assuming decent condition, is it worth sending the technician over? Could it be a decent instrument? (Assuming it's in good condition.) Price is "name your own" at this point.

180 cm is a very decent size, often the models that size are better balanced than larger ones)

I do not know that brand, the only one I did see (around 1900, not me, the piano) did have a really weird action and an horrible touch, very difficult to regulate

The tone could have been really interesting, but the hammers where all bored the same direction (the piano was cross strung but all the hammers where as medium hammers, or all bass hammers, I took pics but I may have lost them, I still do not understand what happened, it looked original, same age than the piano)
The action was not very good quality visibly.

Now admitting that the one on sale have a better action, a 1907 piano in original condition should be very very low price, assuming no major defect

If it was rebuild at some point the quality of the job make the price

Sorry not being able to help more, the piano I did see was not economically viable (cracked bridge and pinblock)

despite this a strange and certainly interesting tone. i would not have paid for it, but could have take it for free or a symbolic price; Often the situation with very old pianos.

Send your tech if he can do some rebuild or repair himself or subcontracted. (i ask him how he feels about that , in fact)

Regards

"old pianos" are for wealthy people, the rebuild attain the price of a small Japanese grand. No rebuild, rarely the piano will be usable for long, it happens, if the precedent owner was taking care of the instrument, only.

At that age, if it has never had any work done on it, it's probably more furniture than musical instrument, but not necessarily.

If you can "name your own price", I'd gamble a bit more and go ahead and hire the tech to check it out. That's a lot of piano taking up a lot of space in your home if it is not at least a playable musical instrument.

Good luck!

Rick

If it's price is "name your own" it sounds like they are basically giving it away. So chances are it's not in decent condition but anything is possible. Could it be a "decent" instrument? ... depends on your definition of decent.

Do you have any information about the piano other than its year? Pictures you could post(then posters more knowledgeable than me might be able to guess about its condition)?

If you can't get any more information about the piano then only you can decide if it's worth a tech inspection on the chance it might be in good condition. Most pianos more than 100 years old would not be in playable condition and would require a lot of work.

I've called 5 technicians. They all said it's worth looking at. None of them are available any time soon and cheap goes quickly, whether it's good or not. I'm going out to look. Last technician told me to just see how it plays, checks for cracks in the bridges, tuning block, if I can see that, but be wary if it's super out of tune. If I get it cheap enough, I could probably turn around and sell it to some other sucker, if I decide restoration is too costly.

Possibly, but pianos can be hard to sell... in fact, sometimes they can be hard to give away, depending on the piano.

I've turned down a few freebies lately. Working on old pianos can be exhausting, especially when you already have a day job.

Good luck!

Rick

The old Chickerings were very interesting pianos. They have the unfortunate reality of flat-sawn, pin-block panels and flat sawn bridge caps. This leads to earlier failure compared to the Steinway and Mason & Hamlin type of construction.

They also have more complex geometry to the pin-block shape, and the action.

In the hands of a rebuilder who understands the engineering weaknesses, the design details can be modified to produce some stunning sounding pianos. This is very expensive work though and most rebuilders wouldn't have a clue how to correct the issues.

I took a chance and bought it for $500. The furniture is very nice. I saw no cracks. (Couldn't see the pin block.) The piano technician is scheduled to come out for a tuning and assess the work that needs to be done. Around here, I think I could resell for $1000 quickly. (I see it happen in the local facebook classifieds all the time. Someone posts a pretty, antique piano and the people all clamor to be first to buy without ever consulting someone who knows anything about pianos.) I pay $250 to move the piano and then will at least pay $120 for tuning. If the guy says it's junk, I'll resell. I hope not, though. Considering how much I paid for the piano, I do have the funds for repairs and such. I also wonder if the date was right. The seller gave me the number and I looked it up in the blue piano book. It doesn't look 100 years old. I will see if I can figure out how to post a photo on here.

Interesting.

The plate should be very massive.

Let's see how it turns. Anyway better have a piano with a normal keyboard than the enlarged one of the players.

Chickerings like that are very narrow, so the actions have the wippens installed at angles. They are held to the rail by brass plates. The hammer flanges may be brass, as well. If they have not broken, it should be all right, but it could be difficult to repair if something breaks.

The style of the legs and case is reasonable for 1907. It's nowhere near as beat up as most that age, which is the only thing that makes it look not as old as it is.

Now that it's in my house and has been cleaned of the dust (on the outside anyway), what can I use to make it into pretty furniture? Polish for the pedals? Some kind of furniture polish? I have no clue on these sorts of things. Also, can I vacuum out the inside to remove some dust?

This may not be possible for you, but whenever I get a new-to-me old piano ( ) I use compressed air to blow out the dust and debris as much as possible. You can only get so far with a hand vac or vac hose. The compressed air works very well, but then it makes a mess everywhere else.

But the mess it makes outside the piano can be easily cleaned otherwise. Just be careful not to use too much air pressure so as to damage any delicate felts, etc...

How does it play and sound?

Rick

For the pedals: Brasso

For the cabinet: When I acquired an old Lyon & Healy baby grand recently I tried a couple things, and found that Old English Scratch Cover did the best job and made it look all shiny and new. I asked the technician if there was any special piano polish and he said, "It's an old piano, and the outside is basically just an old piece of furniture."

I waited until after the technician was done with all his stuff to give it a good cleaning, and left the insides to him. (He has one more visit scheduled.)

Btw - don't try polishing the frame. It's painted cast iron. You'll just polish the paint off.

I meant to add - that looks like a very nice find. I hope it turns out to be in good condition.

I do this, too, but I pull the action first. Compressed air will do a great job getting under the plate and strings, but for the action, you want to use it with a lot less pressure. Tighten the flange screws first, so you don't blow out any shims.

It sounds absolutely awful, but we were told to play it lots anyway. It's so out of tune, I bet a tone deaf person could tell. Keys seem to play fine, though.

I went to home depot to get the polishes and polished it already. It looks nice. I want you to know that while I'm excited about my beautiful (at least looking) piano, the reason I have to do things in a hurry is that I hope to have a baby tomorrow (I'm already 42+ weeks) and once I have a baby I won't get around to doing much for some time.

I will leave inside of the piano cleaning until the technician comes out. I don't want to chance breaking anything.

Congratulations on the birth of your new child, (pending a day or two ), and congrats on the piano!

I hope you can get the piano tuned and sounding good for you and the rest of your family, especially the new baby!

Rick

It's a baby - grand week! :-)