Our church was recently given a 1922 AB Chase 6'1" grand piano. Is it worth restoring? The soundboard and rim appear okay but the pinblock and action need repair/replacement. What experience have you had with this brand of piano?

It seems that AB Chase was a respected brand and were made very well using good materials. Yes, it would be worth restoring/rebuilding and could come out quite nice, but when and if you do sell it (highly unlikely given the circumstance) you won't get much for it because no one knows the brand. I've never played one.

Welcome to Piano World, Harry B!

The AB Chase 6'1" models that I have seen appeared to be very close copies of the old Steinway AI, including the transition bridge. Although I'm not a fan of the tone in this area of the scale (F2 - C#3), they are otherwise pretty nice instruments. As Rotom says though, don't expect any resale value.

Yes, I've also heard that the AB Chase 6'1" is so much like the Steinway A that Chase was sued by Steinway and they won their suit. I don't know if this is true. Perhaps other readers will know. Steve Ganz is doing our rebuid, by the way. He did a great job on a 1927 Steinway A3 given to our church several years ago.

Rotom,

Have you seen or even played an AB Chase piano? Where are you getting this information?

Nah, I read it up on here (http://www.bluebookofpianos.com/agesc.htm#CHASE,A.B.), and recall someone saying something good about them. Forgot when or where. However, I'm pretty sure someone more experiences with A.B Chase pianos can comment and be infinitely more helpful than me. i' still learnin'

Like Rotom, I too have read that the old A.B. Chase brand pianos were well made and worthy of restoring/rebuilding. In fact, there was an article here on PW once (I think I saved the web address somewhere) about older brands that were considered worth of rebuilding. The author spoke highly of the A. B. Chase and called it a “sleeper”. Meaning that it was a good make and worthy of rebuilding but was not well known.

Rick

As I mentioned in my last post, here is the PW article I saved about the "Golden age of American pianos era" and the best brands for restoration and rebuilding.

By David Burton (from May 9th 2002).

The Golden age of pianos... good brands for restoration.

Rick

A. B. Chase uprights were very high quality, but most of them that I have seen were exceptionally worn out. Clearly a pianist's piano! The grands are variable, and I do not recall seeing any that were exceptionally good.

Thanks, Rick, for that interesting article. Our AB Chase is due to be delivered this coming week. I'm most anxious to hear how it turned out!

Congratulations, Harryb!!

Post pictures when you get it home!

Rick

There's little question A.B. Chase made way-better-than-average pianos back when many American companies were making good instruments. There's also little question that resale value would be poor if you put a lot of money into a rebuild and hope to get much out.

I was so absorbed in the AB Chase discussion that one of your other remarks sailed past me until now...

"Steve Ganz is doing our rebuild...He did a great job on a 1927 Steinway A3 given to our church several years ago".

Oh, my!
Your church is certainly Blessed with great pianos.

The A3, in my opinion, has one of the nicest scales that Steinway ever made. From what I've read, it was so good, that it was killing their "B" business, or at least impacting it pretty heavily, and was discontinued for that reason.

And with the AB Chase (early) A copy, you'll have two great instruments.

Do post some pictures and sound samples for us.
It would be interesting to hear the difference in the scaling of the two instruments.

Good luck with your new-to-you piano.

Congratulations!

We did a belly on an A.B.Chase and it is very nice. The plate was next to a Steinway 'A' plate and they looked very similar. It is a very cool piano--worth the new keys and back action as well. The scaling is very nice BTW.

The color is a little inconsistent, but you get the idea:

Kieran, Love that piano's look! Its beautiful!

Beautiful work; beautiful piano.

The dampers, in that stained wood, look Mason & Hamlinish.
Was the action a WNG, also like the Mason?
What kind of hammers did you choose for it?

Good luck with the sale of what looks like a very noble instrument.

Rotom,
Thanks!

Andrew,
Thanks as well.
-they do look kind of Mason-ish
-YES on the WNG
-Abel hammers!

Hmmmm....

Kieran-Thanks for sharing the beautiful job you did on your AB Chase. I only hope ours turns out as well. The case looks wonderful. Because of the added expense and the fact that the piano is in a parish hall and unprotected(we do have a cover and a lock on the fallboard) we elected not to refinish the case. Our tech and I went over the case with steelwool and cleaned it up, cleaned the keys and vacuumed it out before it went to Steve. Maybe we can afford to have the case refinished at some future date. Right now we are looking at having work done on our 38 rank 50 year old Casavant pipe organ. Now there's real money!

Our AB Chase was delivered to us today and it sounds and plays very well It has a great sound-and action. I can see why it is favorably compared to the Steinway A 6'1". Unfortunately, the previous owner didn't care for the case and it is pretty beat up. Any suggestions on case repairs? It is ebony. Any idea of the cost of refinishing the case so that we might think to a future plan. We spend about $7900 including shipping to and from Steve Ganz' shop. We hear that refinishing a grand piano is about $1000/ft Any information would be useful.