I've come by an old upright piano, a Wegman. I took it as a replacement for my old upright for the simple reason it's far more attractive and slightly smaller. My old one, a Thomas & Sons, was a massive slab-sided thing that came out of a church in Thalia, TX. My parents bought it for me when I was five. I'm going to donate the old one to a local shelter for their day room... if they'll take it.
I blew the Wegman apart this evening to give it a thorough cleaning and was pleasantly surprised to find that somewhere, sometime, the action has been reworked and the hammers refelted. I'm guessing probably 30 or 40 years ago. All the parts are there and, with a bit of adjustment and some paraffin on the rub points, it plays well. Quite well, in fact. Plus, the keyboard feel is about a thousand percent better than my old clunker. Given the strings were replaced at some point in recent history, the sound is extraordinary for an antique upright.
What really intrigued me was the serial number, only four digits, and the fact that this piano is obviously very old. According to the interwebz, any Wegner prior to s/n 5000 was built sometime before 1895, but that's the best I could come up with. Given the patent date cast into the sound board is 1886, this means 5000 pianos in 9 years, or 555 units a year. This piano is s/n 3638. By my math that puts the production date somewhere in 1893, but I’d like to be a bit more precise if possible. Anyone on the board with access to a more detailed set of s/n records?
Thanks in advance!
Brad
