Renowned sound: Summitt restoring rare 1899 concert piano

In 50 years of tuning and rebuilding pianos, Ted Summitt said he has never worked on such an instrument.

The Chattanooga businessman is finishing the restoration of an 1899 Steinway & Sons 9-foot concert piano.

“This is probably the nicest thing I’ve ever worked on,” said Mr. Summitt, who owns Summitt Pianos, Organs and Digitals on Lee Highway. “You might say it’s the icing on the cake.”

He said Steinway is regarded as the top piano manufactured in the United States and is the brand of piano found in 98 percent of concert halls.

Dr. Peter Cooper, an instructor in piano at Southern Adventist University, said it has long been known as the brand that has delivered everything an artist could want.

“It has been the industry standard” for more than a century, he said.

“You expect a piano to be your friend,” Dr. Cooper said. “Steinway is the very best of friends.”

He said Steinway pianos made between 1895 and 1920 are some of the best the company has built. He owns a 1918 model with “fantastic” sound, action and craftsmanship, he said.

Mr. Summitt, 68, said he bought the piano he has been restoring for more than two months from a Chattanooga homeowner who was leaving the area but whose family had owned it for 60 or 70 years.

He said 9-foot Steinways are the company’s top model and sell new for $111,000. He said restored models are a good investment and often are valued at 75 percent of a new instrument. He said 9-foot models are rare.

While he hasn’t been able to find cost information on an 1899 model, Mr. Summitt said a new 1909 Steinway 9-foot grand sold for about $1,400.

In 20 years, he said, the value of the restored piano will probably double again.

“It goes up 5 to 6 percent every year,” Mr. Summitt said, “It is a good investment and (is) the best piano to play on. Artists say you can get colors and sounds (from it) that you can’t get from other instruments.”

He said Steinways have been made by hand for 160 years at the company’s two plants in Long Island City, N.Y., and Hamburg, Germany.

They take a year from start to finish, said Mr. Summitt, who worked for Lansford Piano since he was in college before taking over the business more than 15 years ago and re-opening it under his name.

“It’s quite a process,” he said. “I’ve been through the factory. It’s something to see.”

On the 1899 Steinway, which he said had been well taken care of, Mr. Summitt has replaced the action (the connecting links, hammers, and related hardware between the keyboard and the strings), the strings, the felts (on the hammers striking keys) and the pin block (the block which grips the tuning pins).

In the restoration, he said he did give the action a lighter touch that is favored by players today. When the piano was manufactured, he said, players favored a heavier touch.

Mr. Summitt also rebushed the keys and the key tops, and refinished the wood on the outside and inside of the instrument.

“It looks like a new piano,” he said. “It has a tremendous sound.”

New Steinways vary little from the 1899 model, though the one he is working on does have lines and molding that give it a unique look, Mr. Summitt said.

“I just sold a new one,” he said, “and they’re basically the same piano.”

Dr. Cooper said an unrestored 1899 Steinway wouldn’t have the appearance of an unrestored 1899 automobile but would retain some of the rich, round, resonate sound a new instrument displays.

A new or restored Steinway, he said, will display a certain “purr and roar” and be able to project the proper sound of whatever is being played into the concert hall.

Mr. Summitt said there is so much respect for the brand that Southern Adventist University, Lee University and Covenant College are attempting to become all-Steinway music departments. Middle Tennessee University presently has the only all-Steinway program in the state, he said.