Christman upright piano

I recently came across a Christman upright (labelled inside 'grand upright'; the serial number indicates it was made about 1918. It has the leathery deteriorated lacquer finish typical of pianos that age that I have seen, but the case, soundboard and strings are in excellent condition and it really sounds wonderful. It was shipped from California to New Jersey after being tuned, and when I bought it and had it delivered to my home it only needed a slight tuning on some upper strings. For $300US I think I did ok, however I'm curious if anyone else in this group has experience/knowledge of this particular brand.

Cheers,

It sounds like you got a real sweetie of a piano, Cort. For the tons of junk pianos that were made during and around that time period, there WERE some very fine uprights that were turned out, as well. The cabinet project is very rewarding. Some 0000 steel wool, Thompson's Wood Soap, some Formby's Furniture Facelift, a lot of elbow grease and a lot of love can work miracles.

Cheers,

My church is in charge of a little country chapel. The piano inside is a Christman. We have five services there in the summer, and I tune the piano once a year before the first service. The chapel is not heated in the winter, and has no electricity.

At each tuning, I'm amazed how little I actually have to adjust the piano. Aside from a slightly 'tubby' bass, the piano sounds nice. The case, as would be expected, is crackled. The ivories are top-notch

Thanks to both for your replies. I'm missing one ivory keytop, but found a website where they are available for a very small price, and they'll even match the discoloration!

One question: the middle pedal is spring-loaded and works a lever that points to the right of the cabinet, but there is no dowel at the end like the other pedals. Was this just a dummy or did it have some function?

Regards,

I have the same 'feature' on mine, Cort. <G> Apparently, the middle pedal often wasn't connected to anything. For player pianos, maybe it served some purpose, although I can't imagine what that might have been... For some pianos, depressing the middle pedal cause a thin bar to drop between the strings and the hammers, muffling the sound so that kids could sit there and bang out scales and 'Chopsticks' for hours on end, and no one would try to kill them for it. Mostly, it was so the salesman could say, 'It has not one; not TWO, but THREE! Count 'em; THREE PEDALS!!!' <G> Many of the European pianos only have two pedals. Perhaps Europeans aren't as gullible? <G>

Cheers,