American Piano Conservation

If you really want to be a  piano conservationist and truly re-cycle… Then help our environment, rebuild, restore or purchase an older American piano. They can be re-cycled to be like new. Think of how much waste is going into the landfill.  You will be helping the rain forests and tress. It takes a lot of wood, many trees,  metal,  Ivory,  plastic and hardware to build one of these instruments. You think plastic bottles take a lot of room? Ever see how big a seven foot concert grand is?  Take a guess at how many trees and precious resources it took to build it and how much landfill space it takes!

Some of the woods, maple, rock maple,  beech,  oak,  cherry,  solid spruce to name a few. The list of Rare veneers is too long. (many of them  extinct or extremely expensive).

Other materials:

  • Plate bolts,  screws many of them solid brass and chrome
  • Solid brass for the top hinges and big hinge, pedals and rods
  • Felts for the hammers, dampers, key bushings , damper bushings and finish trim
  • Wood that the keys are made of
  • Ivory that an Elephant died for! will be discarded.

There are about 12,000 parts in a piano! New pianos of today will take more trees of inferior quality (fast grown), and more metal etc. Now with plastic finishes, once crack they cannot be restored again. They will not be the heirloom quality pianos of yesteryear, nor will they last anywhere near as long

Posted in Tips for buying a used piano-diyUncategorized
One comment on “American Piano Conservation
  1. Jeff Alterman says:

    Many old American made pianos of the better brands from before around 1930 were of high quality. Unless they are too far gone, they can often be restored to play like they did when they were new. Even old uprights can be restored provided that they are of enough value to be worthwhile. Some outfits have successfully restored old upright pianos to playing condition. The old grand pianos from the better companies were often great instruments. Aside from Steinway, there was Weber, A.B. Chase, Hardman, Peck & Co., Wm. Knabe & Co., Mason & Hamlin, Chickering, Baldwin, and many others.

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