Hardman Piano?
gin...@earthlink.com
Can someone tell me about a piano called Hardman? I recently came into
possession of one.. It's like 5' 10" or so, natural wood finish. It
has some really nice scroll work.. there are 2 front legs on each
side... the soundboard is in good shape, and the keys are ivory. I am
told it was made circa 1910... Is Hardman a fairly good piano?
Generally speaking I mean?
Thank you.
kam...@earthlink.net
===========
Last one I serviced was in 1982, so I don't remember much about it and can't
offer any help on its quality level.
But based on your description of this particular one...the double legs, the
ivories, the scroll work, this would indicate to me the upper end of their
offerings. Generally speaking, with some help from a piano technician, it
could prove to be a reasonable piece to own and have in one's home.
--
Keith McGavern
kam...@earthlink.net
Registered Piano Technician
Oklahoma Chapter 731
Piano Technicians Guild
USA
David Samuel Barr
>
> Can someone tell me about a piano called Hardman? I recently came into
> possession of one.. It's like 5' 10" or so, natural wood finish. It
> has some really nice scroll work.. there are 2 front legs on each
> side... the soundboard is in good shape, and the keys are ivory. I am
> told it was made circa 1910... Is Hardman a fairly good piano?
> Generally speaking I mean?
I *love* the Hardman grand on which I've been playing for 35 years
(originally purchased by my grandparents back in the 1920s), more so
than most other bigger-name pianos I've played in my career. Great
sound, great action (wish I could find a digital that accurately
emulated both, for my apartment which won't accommodate an acoustic).
A few months ago, when I started a thread on Hardmans several people
here made some rather disparaging remarks about them. The gist was that
apparently the line went downhill after the 1920's, but before that
time was a rather good piano, to the extent of having been the official
piano of the Metropolitan Opera for a while.
PDtek
>told it was made circa 1910... Is Hardman a fairly good piano?
>Generally speaking I mea
As I mentioned once before on this list, unless we are dealing with a name like
Steinway or Mason & Hamlin, etc., The general rule is: the older the piano, the
less important the brand name is.And by the time a piano is as old as yours,
the name is virtually irellavant to the quality of your piano. It needs to be
accessed as an individual specimen. In other words, how well has it survived
the years. Did it spend years in an unheated shed, or was it a one owner piano
that was pampered and regularly serviced? I'ts hard to know the complete
history so you need to have a competent technician examine it and give you an
accurate appraisal. Also, I would call the Hardman a middle of the road make.
Dave Bunch Piano Service
& PianoDisc Tech
members.aol.com/pdtek/piano.htm
l...@epix.net
,
kam...@earthlink.net wrote:
> From: gin...@earthlink.com
>
> Can someone tell me about a piano called Hardman? I recently came into
> possession of one.. It's like 5' 10" or so, natural wood finish. It
Hardman was NYC company that hit its heyday in
the 1920s and went slowly downhill financially
after that. I'm not sure precisely when they went
out of business, but a piano atlas will tell you
that. They turned out a pretty big volume of
instruments, most of which were sold in the NYC
area through Macy's, I've been told.
Many of them are still circulating, and I've seen
many of them in my travels around NY piano
shops. They were middle-class instruments for
the home, and therefore weren't as structurally
massive as Steinway, M&H, Chickering, Knabe,
etc., and often today are rebuilt to low standards
by various hackers in New York because they're
not $teinways.
But their raw materials were top quality and the
scales on the one's I've heard all had a rather quiet
bass, but a nice singing quality with exceptional
sustain. The workmanship in the cabinets, the
finishing off of the plate, the bridge pinning, etc.,
on their grands was very meticulous. Like at least
a dozen other brands from that era, they were
probably very pretty-sounding pianos when new,
and a pre-war 5'10" would certainly be worth a
new pinblock, strings, and hammers, if the
soundboard, bridges and plate are still good.
(Have them pay close attention to duplicating the
original scale so as not to damage the bridge)
Beyond that, the expense may be hard to justify,
as the name is not equated with $$$. Get a good
rebuilder to examine it for you.
My first piano was a Hardman console and I liked
it. I learned my first Mozart sonata on it. It had a
tubby bass, but from the tenor up it sang
beautifully, and the workmanship and woods were
far better than any upright on the new market
today.
Well, hope this helps. . .
George
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John S. Gray
centre trichords as well as the bass strings? Serial number should be
under 40,000.
JG