# My 92 year old Upright Piano



## CGR (Aug 12, 2020)

About 30 years ago, having sold my 2nd hand Yamaha U3 upright piano and being left wondering what piano could replace it within my modest budget, I came across a piano tuner who had taken in an old German upright piano - an ex-player piano manufactured in 1928 in Stuttgart which was in need of rebuilding. After considering the enormous hours this task would involve, he decided to sell the piano as it was.

Visiting his home one evening with my fiancé, he led us to the front room of his house where this enormous dark upright piano stood. I lifted the fallboard to discover a perfect set of ivory & ebony keys in amazingly good condition for their age - not a chip or crack amongst the 88 keys. It seemed this piano had been well cared for, and possibly used more as a player piano than an instrument someone played the keys of by hand. 

Within a few seconds of laying my hands on the keys I knew this was for me. The action key stick length of many pianola/player pianos is quite long, in order to extend under the front roll part of the player mechanism. On a well made one, this results in a beautifully balanced and light action, and the action of this piano felt wonderful.

Also due to it's height and the cross-strung design, the bass strings are the equivalent length of about a 6'4" grand piano, with a soundboard size to match. The piano tuner told me the piano teacher who lived across the road and owned a grand piano often came over to play it - she loved it so much. He had taken the player mechanism out of the piano and it was in multiple pieces, with a roughly drawn schematic diagram of how it all fit together. Amazingly complex pieces of engineering.

True to my impulsive leanings, the deal was done on the night, for an amount considerably less than what I'd sold my Yamaha U3 for a few months prior. We shook hands with my trust in him that the piano would be fine for years.

Jump forward 30 years and after numerous moves in and out of homes, and the piano having an extended stay at my wife's parents house, I finally have it back with me and crammed into my home studio. It's like having an old friend return.

The piano was tuned in May this year, with the tuner remarking how well it had held pitch, and giving the piano a big thumbs up for it's build quality & tone. Having created most of my music at home over the past 20+ years with digital & virtual instruments, it was a novelty to pull out some mics and just play and capture the results. While I was checking the levels, I started absent-mindedly playing a pattern with my right hand which quickly grew into a tune of sorts. I grabbed a long piece of black felt cloth I use to cover my keyboard connected to my DAW, and hung it down in front of the hammers to have a go at my own felt piano (may as well - everyone's doing it!).

Here is the result of that single take, with a little bit of synth & reverb layered afterwards and some subtle delay fx on the piano at the end. I wonder if the craftsmen who hand-built this piano way back in 1928 at the Richard Lipp & Sohn factory in Stuttgart Germany could ever have imagined that nearly 100 years later it would be still making music and bringing joy to it's owner . . .


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## marclawsonmusic (Aug 12, 2020)

This has a very nice resonance. Nice!


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## CGR (Aug 12, 2020)

My 1928 Richard Lipp & Sohns upright piano, and how I placed the stereo mic:


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## dzilizzi (Aug 12, 2020)

Nice sound.


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## tebling (Aug 12, 2020)

Lovely post and beautiful track. I can really relate to your experience.

My 1913 upright has been in my family for four generations, and has survived at least a half dozen moves up and down the west coast of the US. It's creaky, cracked, and missing a lot of ivory but it's what I learned on from when I was eight years old, and now over forty years later it's as much a part of my family as a "thing" can be, and more like an extension of my own soul.


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## Rex282 (Aug 12, 2020)

Very cool love it,! I just bought an antique upright also.The seller said it was 1 to 2 hundred years old( haven’t traced the serial yet )I havent got it tuned yet but this inspired me to get to work. It’s a Hilton & Hilton.The picture doesn’t do it justice it’s beautiful hope it sounds beautiful too.


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## Jenna Fearon (Aug 12, 2020)

Really lovely track with excellent piano sound! Very nice. 

I clicked the thread because I have my own upright which I absolutely adore. It's got the most magical sound and I write most of my songs sitting at it. It's a late 1800s/early 1900s H. Garn upright. I should really take a nice picture of it but here it is in the background along with some other gear in my studio. Definitely my favorite instrument, and we got it for free about twelve years ago. Can't beat that!


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## CGR (Aug 13, 2020)

Jenna Fearon said:


> Really lovely track with excellent piano sound! Very nice.
> 
> I clicked the thread because I have my own upright which I absolutely adore. It's got the most magical sound and I write most of my songs sitting at it. It's a late 1800s/early 1900s H. Garn upright. I should really take a nice picture of it but here it is in the background along with some other gear in my studio. Definitely my favorite instrument, and we got it for free about twelve years ago. Can't beat that!


Thanks for listening. Nice one - great to have a real piano amongst all the electronics. You can keep playing by candle-light if the power goes out


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## doctoremmet (Aug 13, 2020)

Awesome place! What’s that synth in the middle. Looks like one of those cool Ensoniq displays, with the blue LEDs?


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## CGR (Aug 13, 2020)

tebling said:


> Lovely post and beautiful track. I can really relate to your experience.
> 
> My 1913 upright has been in my family for four generations, and has survived at least a half dozen moves up and down the west coast of the US. It's creaky, cracked, and missing a lot of ivory but it's what I learned on from when I was eight years old, and now over forty years later it's as much a part of my family as a "thing" can be, and more like an extension of my own soul.


Great to hear - 4 generations is amazing. I'm happy to hear it's never been abandoned like so many old pianos.


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## CGR (Aug 13, 2020)

Rex282 said:


> Very cool love it,! I just bought an antique upright also.The seller said it was 1 to 2 hundred years old( haven’t traced the serial yet )I havent got it tuned yet but this inspired me to get to work. It’s a Hilton & Hilton.The picture doesn’t do it justice it’s beautiful hope it sounds beautiful too.


Wow - one to two hundred years is a wide margin! I know many of the old brands but have never heard of that one. There were thousands of piano manufacturers worldwide in the early late 1800's to 1900's. Hope your tuner can get it back up to concert pitch - may need to do it incrementally so as not to stress the piano too much in one go.


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## creativeforge (Aug 13, 2020)

Rex282 said:


> Very cool love it,! I just bought an antique upright also.The seller said it was 1 to 2 hundred years old( haven’t traced the serial yet )I havent got it tuned yet but this inspired me to get to work. It’s a Hilton & Hilton.The picture doesn’t do it justice it’s beautiful hope it sounds beautiful too.



What I could find is that these Hiltons seem to have been manufactured between 1880 and 1920. So that would put it 120 to 140 yo.


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## creativeforge (Aug 13, 2020)

CGR said:


> About 30 years ago, having sold my 2nd hand Yamaha U3 upright piano and being left wondering what piano could replace it within my modest budget, I came across a piano tuner who had taken in an old German upright piano - an ex-player piano manufactured in 1928 in Stuttgart which was in need of rebuilding. After considering the enormous hours this task would involve, he decided to sell the piano as it was.
> 
> Visiting his home one evening with my fiancé, he led us to the front room of his house where this enormous dark upright piano stood. I lifted the fallboard to discover a perfect set of ivory & ebony keys in amazingly good condition for their age - not a chip or crack amongst the 88 keys. It seemed this piano had been well cared for, and possibly used more as a player piano than an instrument someone played the keys of by hand.
> 
> ...




Love the tune and the story.  

I used to own a player piano, but one day decided to gut it as the mechanism and the leather bellows were beyond repair. It had a lot of volume, and a beautiful action.


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## ashh (Aug 13, 2020)

Wasn't this a Donna Summer track? "I, had a ball, with, my 92 year old piano."

Thanks for sharing.


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## doctoremmet (Aug 13, 2020)

ashh said:


> Wasn't this a Donna Summer track? "I, had a ball, with, my 92 year old piano."
> 
> Thanks for sharing.


Diana Ross


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## SupremeFist (Aug 13, 2020)

Sounds (and looks) beautiful, congrats Craig!


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## CGR (Aug 13, 2020)

creativeforge said:


> Love the tune and the story.
> 
> I used to own a player piano, but one day decided to gut it as the mechanism and the leather bellows were beyond repair. It had a lot of volume, and a beautiful action.


Thank you. The mechanism components from my piano were also in a sad state, with the leather and canvas bellows having perished over the years. The work which went into the complex mechanism was incredible. I kept the front pianola roll mechanism as a keep sake, and one of the larger bellows as an "art piece" in my studio.


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## CGR (Aug 13, 2020)

SupremeFist said:


> Sounds (and looks) beautiful, congrats Craig!


Cheers - thanks for listening


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## Morning Coffee (Aug 13, 2020)

This makes me want to buy a house, just so I can put a real piano in it. Lovely.


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## Rex282 (Aug 13, 2020)

creativeforge said:


> What I could find is that these Hiltons seem to have been manufactured between 1880 and 1920. So that would put it 120 to 140 yo.


yes i was a bit skeptical that it could be 2 hundred years old because cosemticaly it's almost immaculate soooo...The finish is still shinny with very few cracks it just has bruises..The wood is esquisite heavily figured burled walnut and the real ebony and ivory keys are a bit worn.. but looks great just as furniture!!This was the owners family piano for 3 generations at least....but I can't wait to play it and hear a "real piano" in my house.


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## sndmarks (Aug 13, 2020)

nice find and nice track!

Older instruments are definitely where it’s at. Love my 1924 Hardman baby grand. it sounds so lived in and has mojo for days!


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## Jenna Fearon (Aug 13, 2020)

doctoremmet said:


> Awesome place! What’s that synth in the middle. Looks like one of those cool Ensoniq displays, with the blue LEDs?


thanks! Yup, that's an Ensoniq SQ-80. Good eye.


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