I just got an awesome piano...

[ChoralScholar]

It is an historic instrument. It came out of the Black Orchid night club in Hot Springs, AR. Tony Bennett sang with this piano. Apparently the first performance of "I left my heart in San Francisco" was sung with this piano.

Anyway - the family in Little Rock who owned this piano is moving out of their house and she offered it to me.

The piano was re-fitted with a yellow bar-top for drinking around the piano. I am hoping to get a replacement lid and music stand. The piano does need work, but the most complex part of the piano, the action and dampers, are all perfect.

Does anyone happen to have a copy of Pierce Piano Atlas? I need to try and date this piano. It is a Starr baby grand, serial 189555. I'm guessing it dates to the 1940s.

[kentauros]

1. Looks like one you could dance on top of!

You'll have to throw some wild parties and post pics of the drunks dancing on it :P

Nice-looking piano anyway, but I know nothing more about them than how they sound and that I like that sound :)

[ChoralScholar]

2. I've been doing a little investigative work on it this morning.

It is mechanically in very good shape. It needs a little work on the lyre supports.

[tigereye]

3. looks lovely! Enjoy. It's great to have instuments with such interesting history!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. that is cool

:)

[david13]

5. Oh, get that thing tuned. How long ago was it last tuned? And yes,

I would say, replace that top.
That top is a bit over the top. I guess you could say.
But what you have there is my very favorite instrument. Of the musical instruments, that is.
An aside: Best Recorded song on a piano out of tune, of all time? Ghost Riders in the Sky, by Johnny Cash.
dc

[ChoralScholar]

6. I've been working on setting the temperament this morning -

It'll take me a while to get it tuned - it's been a while, methinks.

[david13]

10. Ow, that don't sound good. But let us see. And, a piano out of

tune never bothered me. Some people, the slightest bit, and they complain. I think I played the piano for many years before I ever found out that they did tune them. Ha ha.
And as I say, it can add some extra features to the right song. Try Ghost Riders. The piano adds a tinny, haunting, ghost-like quality that fits.
Let me know when you have the Waldstein, No 21 in C major down and I'll come over and listen.
dc

[brendan120678]

7. Wow...that "counter top" is a little...

tacky? I don't know.
I don't understand why that's done.
If you're going to ruin a perfectly good piano by serving drinks on it, why even go through the trouble of making it look so terribly ugly like that?

[ChoralScholar]

8. Yeah... bigtime tacky.

These clubs and casinos in Hot Springs were open from the 1930s to the 1960s - It's a product of a much bolder-colored era, methinks...

[csziggy]

9. You can look up the serial number online - probably

http://www.bluebookofpianos.com/serial1.htm

I found the serial number for the piano I sort of inherited and verified my piano's age at that site. It was purchased new by my great-grandparents in 1905 and has never been out of the family. It has wonderful sound quality, but after over a hundred years, it needs new felts and the finish needs to be rescued. Maybe someday, before I pass it down to one of my musically talented nephews.

[ChoralScholar]

11. I already did - the piano was built in 1925

by the Starr Corporation out of Richmond, IN.

[csziggy]

12. Cool