Best deal ever.

[RacerXtreme]

What's your best deal ever? One that just blew your mind. Wish you could do it again, and again and again .....

Mine is an 1874 Chickering Square Grand Piano.

Built in September of 1874.

Free.

Cost me 250 or 300 to have someone move it a.s.a.p.

Carved fruit on the legs. Exquisite woodwork for the time. Needed new strings. Most of the original ivory keys were in decent shape. It was a "coffin" style piano and was hinged at the side. It was somewhat rectangular in shape.

Chickering was the #2 piano company of the time .........behind Steinway.

Abraham Lincoln had the same exact model in the white house. I have a picture of it somewhere. It was a Parlour Grand so the front, back and both sides all had the fancy woodwork. Kept it for a year and a half, then realized I didn't have the time nor space to completely go through it.

Or knowledge......

So I sold it on Ebay for $1800 bucks.

I did spend about 10 bucks on wood polish tho.

Fully restored, depending on the quality of restoration, worth somewhere between 20 and 40 grand. Maybe more.

The gentleman that gave it to me had the piano in his family for 74 years. He was tired of looking at it and I had to get it out of there right away.

Thank you.

[RacerXtreme]

Wow........ thanks for the history lesson.

This is a little older, but very similar to what it looked like:

http://www.vintagepianoshop.com/detail.cfm?id=67


That one - obviously restored - they had listed for $25,000.00.

[Old Guy]

Hmm- being in the biz, I had an unfair advantage.

Best satisfaction was when the old Southern hotel here got remodeled.. went down to look at the electronics, a couple of Urei third octaves, some Crown D-150's. Was walking around and happened to notice the ceiling speakers. Asked the contractor if they were to come out, he replied yes but they hadn't gotten there yet. After going thru a ridiculous crawlspace, Lo and behold...8 755A's and 4 604-B's. Bought the lot for $300. This was in late 70's early 80's, so prices were not what they are now...but that qualifies as the one I'd like to do again...

[bowtie427ss]

Chickering was probably the biggest manufacturer of squares, and here in the northeast 4 out of 5 squares encountered will be Chickering.

You did very well to get 1800 for it. I wouldn't expect to get that for a Mason & Hamlin which were a more expensive and somewhat better quality instrument, but as far as a musical instrument, squares by more than a century, are obsolete.

I'm glad to hear there was that much interest in it, some of them need to be preserved outside of museums where they get locked away, and i always shudder at the demise of the ones that don't find new homes or that sell for far less than just the rosewood or walnut veneer is worth.

Their most inherent flaws or shortcomings are their inadequate framework which makes them difficult to tune and unable to hold a tune accurately for long periods of time. Square actions are not unified in construction, the action components are not equally dimensioned including the keys which makes them difficult for the technician, and this same lack of unification of parts gives the keyboard an uneven feel and unpredictable touch to the musician.

I'm very careful not to use Steinway as a standard of reference in regard to build quality. After the turn of the 20th century, grands built by Baldwin, Knabe, and Mason & Hamlin all easily equalled the Steinways, Weber pianos generally exceeded Steinway's mark and indeed in the nineteen teens Steinway forced the Aeolian company to agree to promote the Steinway pianos they fitted with Duo-Art reproducing systems as a grade above the Weber while exactly the opposite was true, the Weber name was owned and produced by Aeolian, and Steinway knew it was a better instrument.

Aeolian had a contract with Steinway to buy a minimum quantity of their instruments each year. During the great depression Steinway used this contract to break Aeolian and assume rights to the Weber name and roughly 100 other names that Aeolian produced and sold pianos under. Farney Wurlitzer also may have had a hand in what transpired, i'm sure he felt threatened by Aeolian as they were geographically close with Aeolian having a huge factory in East Rochester, Wurlitzer was in North Tonawanda near the terminus of the Erie canal.

In the early 1900's Chickering built some highly decorative modern(overstrung) grands for expositions and the elite, M&H also got in on the exposition pieces. The numbers produced were small, but the highly carved and ornate Louis XVI cases are extreme works of art and really need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

Probably the best deal i've made along these lines was about 10 years ago at a large music auction when due to the auctioneer's change in tactics confused most of the bidders that weren't paying close attention to his instructions.

The instrument in question was an Andrews cabinet pipe organ circa 1832 and one of only two he was known to have built in his Canajoharie shop before moving to Albany in 1835. I had talked to a buyer from the Met as well as a rep from the Utica brewery, and a local philanthropist who were all there to bid on that organ. The catalog estimate was 10-12k, 2200 including buyers premium and it was mine. Of course it was also the end of my bidding, and the beginning of a 4 hour disassembly and packing process getting it ready for it's trip home. It moved on to it's current owner a couple years ago to help offset a family members medical expenses.

As an old timer told me many years ago, and this applies to our most valued and collectible Altecs too, "we're only just temporary caretakers of this stuff".

That's my story........... and i'm stickin to it.

[DSauro]

Well, I can't beat your Chickering, but since this is an Altec board, one deal from 1980 does come to mind. A pair of freshly built Magnificents (A7-500 WII) empty cabinets with extra bracing & backboards cut for the later (Model 19 style) crossovers had been sitting in an Altec shipping warehouse for nearly two years. Obviously, custom made for someone, I think they said in Japan, no Altec logo's. To make a short story long, I got them for free, legal, too.

[RacerXtreme]

Speaking of free....

How about a pair of Altec MR94B horns ?

For free.

(no drivers)

Someone from the other sideo of the state e-mailed me (tracked me down through this board)
and asked if I lived anywhere near Selfridge
Air Force Base (which I do). Said he won 5 of them at an auction and couldn't get over there
to pick them up in time. Asked me if I could
pick all of them up and hang onto them until
the weekend. Mind you...... they are HUGE.

I said no problem. He said he'd give me a pair for my trouble. I said cool, thanx......

Had to drag the jet skis off the trailer and picked them up the next day.

Owned nothin' but a bunch of Altec 1005 and 1505 horns over the years till then and was surprised at how smooth and nice they sounded. With a 288.

Always wanted to do an A-B comparison between the JBL 2360A / 2446j and Altec's MR94B with a 288C, but never got around to it. Hmmmm.....

If I didn't have 30 other things to do it would be easy.

[gamalot]

Not sure if this fits here. Got back from the Viet Nam war and the GUVMENT said I had GI benfits owed me.
Took a job with OJT approved (on the job training benefits) and got this rediculous check for $3600 with more comming my way monthly.

Went right down to the local Stereo shop and bought 4 model 19s and a bunch of other Quadraphonic gear.

Thats what got me in all this trouble and I've never really looked back since.

Guess I should have gone to Kolage with it but we all take different pafs to get here.

No need to tell me what I should have done because I can't hear you now! Couldn't hear all that well after getting off the flight deck of the USS Intrepid either but thats a different story.

When its too loud for you, it sound great to me.

Gary

[RacerXtreme]

That's awesome.......

[Old Guy]

Kinda off topic- but you triggered a conversation with a friend, who sent me this..

http://www.intuh.net/barnfinds/

[valhallax]

never had much in the luck department...but a friend gave me a set of jbl c34's. he affiliated jbl and altec lansing because of the name. looked the up on fleaplay and saw a set..minus crossovers and potato masher horns go for 2500. these just sit in my office, one grill is a burlap sack, so i removed it. never hooked them up yet..the altec inspiration is just not there for me, tho the folded rear horn intrigues me.