Wednesday, March 24th. marked the arrival of our newly restored 1926 Chickering/Ampico 5-8 grand piano. John Zeiner & Sons in Allentown, PA did their usual superb job, replacing the soundboard, bridges, pinblock and strings plus the complete action work, refinishing, hammers and voicing. A new bench was built to match the fine hand rubbed finish. A whole new life has been breathed into this 84 year old reproducing piano. Now it’s up to me to finish the remaining pneumatic components (stack, pump and expression regulators). A few weeks ago, I brought my pianist daughter, Katy to Allentown to try out the action and tone quality. This was the first time in a long while, the craftsmen at Zeiners shop have heard musical entertainment in their shop. They are wonderful tuners but there is not a single performer among them. Everyone enjoyed Katy’s repertoire of classical music.
While in PA, we picked up another load of over 200 piano rolls from Keystone to scan, which has now been done. More than half of this lot consisted of Welte Licensee rolls and the rest were some of the hard-to-find Ampico titles. Richard Groman and friends are doing a great job finding those rare titles and it’s exciting to see the library getting much closer to being complete. Only a couple dozen items remain on the want-list.
Since the last update, the primary chest was completed, tested and tubed to the stack. The stack was disassembled, critical components marked and measured and all unit valves have been disassembled with almost zero damage. The striker pneumatics came off quite easily as the gauze and glue joints were quite dry and ready to let go. I made a set of stainless steel lower valve seats which came out quite nicely. I am debating whether to actually use them since I am getting some conflicting opinions as to whether this material is compatible with the leather valve facings. The original seats were preserved and can be restored.
I have had the priviledge of meeting an expert Ampico restorer who shall remain nameless for the time being. He has taken an interest in this project and has been willing to share some of his knowledge with me. I’ve already picked up some very useful pointers on the application of hot glue. There are a number of tools and equipment items which are in the process of being acquired. Some of these techniques are proprietary and I have agreed not to reveal certain details on this forum. Let me just say that 40 years from now, the next person to restore this Ampico action will find it no more difficult than an original unrestored unit. Perhaps the only clue that it is not original and unrestored will be that the craftsmanship is unusually neat in appearance compared with typical Amphion factory standards.
Congratulations to Katy Doe on being accepted at two upstate NY colleges for a dual major in piano and voice (Crane School of Music and Fredonia). She just did a third audition at Westminister College in Princeton, NJ and I’m sure the outcome will be the same. Congratulations also go to my daughter, Melissa Eppard and her husband Joey. They are expecting a baby boy in June (My first grandchild).
