Chickering Pianos
Expert Piano Restorations by Jim Ialeggio
create a sound the modern piano FORGOT
Let us create the Chickering sound for You
For more information:
Pre-modern Chickering piano work requires…
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Replication of obsolete parts
Action parts for Chickering pianos are not in current production, and thus mostly not available from supply houses. This means we replicate original parts as… Read more
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Lightly stressed soundboard
Chickering pianos pre-1900, were famous for textural clarity and differentiation of 4 distinct registers. These tonal attributes can only be produced by low compression,… Read more
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Soft light hammers
Heavy and /or hard felt modern hammers cannot produce the Chickering piano sound we are looking for…period…it doesn’t work. We use a very soft, low… Read more
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High action leverage
Chickering pianos had excellently designed Erard and Brown style actions. Pianists often comment on how “they play themselves”, or “ played on this piano,… Read more
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Appropriate string materials
Current research suggests that the tensile strength of pre-modern piano wire differed from that of modern piano wire. There is some evidence that suggests the… Read more
Current Offerings
I have finished rebuilt pianos for sale at times. I also have an inventory of pianos ready to be commissioned for rebuilding.
About Jim
Pianist, composer
Monteverdi, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Stravinsky, Ives, Bartok, Gershwin, Debussy, Monk, Evans….these are my aural lineage.
As a pianist I am an artist. My medium is sound. I think and hear with my hands.
CD below…(alas…a recording studio piano. My own pianos developed later).
Artisan
As a piano rebuilder, I am an artisan. My medium remains above all, sound. Like the pianist, I think and hear with my hands.
This is how I proceed in the shop:
First, I work through the concept, research it, draw it, chat with colleagues. Then, I go out to the shop and follow my hands. The task becomes a dance; thought in motion. I really love this part of the work.
Historic conservator
Earlier on, I reproduced sash for historic buildings.
Versed in historic and traditional design, respecting traditional aesthetics, moving the aesthetic to encompass other ways of looking at the traditional.
Jim’s “Through the Looking Glass”
Earlier modern piano work
Download High Resolution Recordings of a Jim Ialeggio re-created Chickering
Ask About Pianos
Contact me to learn more about my services and available instruments.