From one of the other forums--thought it might be better placed here?


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"I bolted up in bed one night and said, "Wait a minute, there's a concert grand piano in my grandmother's house, covered with housepaint." I went to investigate...

It's about 8'6" to 8'9" long. It has the same metal frame as the pre-1900 chickerings had. There is a letter F embossed on the metal frame. The keys are plastic. The legs are carved. Under the paint, it appears to be dark, dark oak.

There is a number 1082 stamped on the bottom of the piano and inside (when you rip the cover over the keys off to get to the mechanism, it's on a tag in there, on the left).

The story is that whoever built the house in 1923 bought this piano from the Piano company in town. East Rochester, NY had the largest piano manufacturer in the world, starting in 1908. It says AMPICO on the smoke stack. In 1932-abouts, I think it changed to Aeolean. 1932 is when Chickering moved from Boston to East Rochester. The piano was too large to move out of the house in 1963, when they moved in. It was also unplayable then. The felts were gone and I think the pinblock was gone too.

Currently, it sits there, covered with white housepaint. The tuning pins appear to be ripping from the pinblock. The soundboard is cracked. The action needs to be pulled out and repaired. Felts need to be replaced

So, can anyone tell me what it is? If it was built in town here, I might see if I can get some old men to rebuild it in the garage. They built them the first time around. I'm trying to avoid selling it, but a $20,000 restoration seems out of my league. I'd like to get it to play, at least, so it's worth keeping around until I've got some dough.

Here are the pics

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano02.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano03.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano04.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano05.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano06.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano07.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano08.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano09.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano10.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano11.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano12.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano13.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano14.jpg

http://24.97.84.9/mike/piano15.jpg

What do you guys think? "

Hi, to me it looks a little like an 1860's Bechstein. Though I'm not familiar with US brands to say what if it is one of those. Scrape or use paint stripper on the fall and see if there is a name.