Sunday, November 27, 2011

It has been a GREAT Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you all had the same. I only wish I had more turkey, stuffing and gravy for dinner tonight.
It has been a GREAT Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you all had the same. I only wish I had more turkey, stuffing and gravy for dinner tonight.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving everyone from our home to yours.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Working for my clients today. Got http://RicOverton.com set up with two blogs with all of my clients advertised. Check it out.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Who was Chickering?

Jonas Chickering was born in Mason Village, New Hampshire in April of 1798 to Abner Chickering who was a blacksmith and a farmer. He originally worked as a cabinet maker Apprentice and in 1818 moved to Boston to continue his work. After a year he ran into John Osborn on Orange Street and began working for him as a piano maker. In 1823, Chickering and James Stewart entered a partnership and began making pianos under the name Stewart and Chickering. They made 15 pianos that first year which sold for around $275.00

Stewart & Chickering dissolved after four years, and in 1830 Chickering started working with John Mackay who had a piano store and also made organs and piano. John had also worked with Alpheus Babcock who was doing business as Chickering and Company at 416 Washington Street. In 1837 Chickering & Mackays along with Mackay’s son William H. Mackay built a new five story factory which included a retail store and a concert hall, at 334 Washington Street.

John Mackay passed away in 1841 so Chickering mortgaged the factory and bought out the remaining shares from the Mackay’s family which he paid out over time. On December 1, 1852 the factory burned putting over 200 people out of work and a sustained loss of over $250,000.00. All of the tools and patters were lost and according to reports say that one of the first overtstrung pianos was lost in the fire too. Chickering then began to rebuild a new “state of the art” steam powered factory according to Mr. Chickering’s specifcations. This new factory was located at 791 Tremont Street.

Sadly, Chickering died before the new factory was completed in December of 1853. His death was important to the city of Boston that there was almost 1000 people at his funeral and the mayor even ordered the city’s churches to ring their bells out of respect. By 1853, Chickering had manufactured more than 12,000 pianos and was building more than 100 a month with sales of over almost $10,000.00 a month. The might Chickering Piano display at the London International Exhibition of 1851 earned a gold medal. They also got special mention for their grand pianos noted for brilliancy and power. Chickering had many patents which included: single piece iron frames,along with wrest plank bridges and damper guides in square pianos, wrest plank terminations in grands as wel as several others. Chickering & Mackays also had control of an action patented created by Alpheus Babcock and they also had control of licensed actions patents by Edwin Brown and George Howe. Chickering made curved hammer strike lines in square grands which permitted larger hammers. Chickering is also said to have helped Ichabod Washburn develop the first piano wire that was made in the United States.

Among many of his musical accomplishment Chickering, Henry W. Pickering and Edward Frothingborn helped to form the society which was responsible for erecting the Boston Music Hall which was built in 1852. There were four children: Thomas Chickering, C. Frank Chickering, George H. Chickering, and Anna Chickering. Who all worked as pianomakers and partners in the company forming Chickering and Sons.

Although Chickering was purchased by Gibson several years ago and ceased production, Chickering remains one of my favorite pianos. Its clarity of sound and very smooth action is incredible.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.

Ric Overton of http://PianoSD.com via http://MaxMorganDesign.com

Monday, September 26, 2011

Nothing to do with pianos but, my brother and sis in law in N.C. after the hurricane Irene last month.
http://ping.fm/vAVMp

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Business is coming together nicely. The Piano Social Directory is well on its way to being finished.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Sauter Pianos

I have begun a study of the history of some of our famous piano makers over the centuries.

There have been some absolutely captivating builders. Among them of course has been Sebastien Erard, Jonas Chickering, Theodore Steinway, Johan Ibach, Ignaz Bosendorfer and of course Joseph Brodmann along with one of my favorites; Carl Sauter.

Little is known of some of these guys in the U.S. because the importing of pianos at that time but, Europe has a totally different idea of music, making music and the building of fine instruments than in other parts of the world. But I am very captivated by Mr. Sauter.

Here is the story. Johann Streicher owned a piano company called Streicher pianos. Streicher had risen to fame because Ludwig van Beethoven had purchased several instruments from them and the Streicher was his personal favorite, in fact he often requested that a Streicher piano be provided for his concerts. The company had attracted much attention and got the attention of a young man named Johann Grimm.

Some time after Johann had joined Streicher Pianos, Mr. Streicher passed away and left his company to his daughter Nannette, a freind of Beethoven and extremely close to another composer and artist of this era named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They actually performed together on Streicher pianos on several occasions.

After several years of service to Streicher, Mr. Grimm decided to branch out on his own. He created what was to become the Sauter Piano Company in 1813. To date this piano company is the oldest family owned piano manufacturer and the oldest continuous running piano maker in the world. The company has always been controlled, owned and operated by a Sauter.

Today, Urlich Sauter is in charge and continues to make pianos in his factory in Spaichingen, Germany at the foothills of the famous Black Forest. They continue to manufacture pianos with the concept that Johann Grimm used in 1813 but have integrated modern day technologies. Today the factory is a state-of-the-art factory that is quite impressive and builds approximately 450 pianos a year. In Europe, Sauter is highly regarded as one of the finest instruments available. In the U.S. there are only a few dealers that carry the instrument.

Once you have the opportunity to experience the Sauter piano I am sure you will agree that this instrument is one that quietly grabs your attention and seems to say "is that all you got, come on get with it".

More on some of the other famous manufacturers coming soon

Until then-

Ric Overton

posted by Ric Overton of http://PianoSD.com via http://MaxMorganDesign.com

Friday, September 2, 2011

This Past Month

The past month I have been out of touch for the blog. We have been making many changes, one of which is going to be released by the end of the month.

I have long been concerned about the fact that shopping for pianos can be rather difficult when you are not sure what you are doing. You’re not sure if there are questions that should be asked, if you are asking the wrong questions, the right questions, or if there is something thatis missing.

I have watched many customers that are not sure what to ask, get in a lot of trouble because they forgot the right questions or asked all together the wrong questions. Searching for a piano can be exhausting to the person who knows nothing at all.

Searching for a teacher, tuner, technician, artist or any other thing in the piano business can be difficult at times. In the age that we live in it is usually about electronic gadgets or cars that are all over blogs but, finding piano information can be challenging at very best.

Next month PianoSD is planning on a complete overhaul that will hopefully take the guess work out of buying a piano anywhere in the U.S. finding a teacher in Los Angeles, or a tuner in San Francisco, perhaps you need to know more information about pianos in Sacramento I hope to help put the end of quess work for you.

As we move forward I would like to tell you how excited I am to now be handling all of the social media and internet marketing for Brodmann pianos in the U.S. We have been talking about this for about 7 months and finally landed the contract in July. As you know I am managing the Piano Outlet in Nipomo, Ca. We are a part of a much larger branch in Oxnard. i have been so happy with the area and what it has to offer. So if you are up in the San Luis Obis

Thursday, August 25, 2011

My Passion for Pianos

I have been reading a really good book about passion. NO! Not the sexual kind. Passion is the thing that invades your mind all of the time. The thing that you think of at odd times. The thing that draws your mind away when you think of something funny or sad. Passion. It's the thing that drives people to do what they do.

Pianos are truly my passion. When I look at a piano I think about all of the hands that worked on 15,000 parts to put it all together. I see the trees in the forest being cut down and then crafted into the wooden parts that are used in the piano. The sheep that were sheared to get the wools. The hands that were used to make the strings, not to mention the assembly.

European pianos, Asian pianos or American pianos. It's the same all around. So much handcraftsmenship that went into each and every single piano that is constructed regardless of the point of origin.

Since I have moved, just north of Santa Maria and south of San Luis Obispo to Nipmo, Ca. I moved to Nipmo when The Piano Outlet opened thier satelite store and I have learned to slow "slo" down a little (at least in some ways) I have started enjoying life a little more. This crazy passion for European, Asian, and American pianos seems to multiply.

Pianos make a world wide statement. They are one of the most widely accepted form of musical instruments and I am truly proud when someone asks me what I do to say, I'm in the piano business. I really want to see the piano to make a ressurgence in the market place. Its very tough in the current economic situations and many people are deciding to work outside of our industry. Yet, when you sit down at a piano and start to play people begin to smile.

I love our piano teachers, technicians, piano tuners, piano movers as well as artists, and dealers,etc. I do wish you the very best.

Hope to see you soon!

Ric

posted by Ric Overton via http://maxmorgandesign.com

Friday, August 19, 2011

Southern California Pianos

As a piano dealer in Southern California and more recently working as the store manager for The Piano Outlet on the Central Coast of California located in Nipomo, a small town near San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria, I have seen and experienced my share of the business both the upside and the downside.

PianoSD is branching out to offer a new services for the piano industry. Soon PianoSD will begin to offer a website service that will bring together all areas within the piano industry. This will include piano moving, piano teaching and piano tuning, which will direct you to the right person in your area who provides these services that you are requesting.

With these changes comes a lot of intensive work, PianoSD has completed the offerings in California and will soon be branching out to Texas, Florida and New York. I hope that each of you who read this will tell your freinds that in the next few months we will offer a website service that will be 100% free to the people and will assist in providing music and music education to everyone who wants it.

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available and I appreciate your patience with us through the changes.

Ric Overton

http://PianoSD.com via http://MaxMorganDesign.com
Interviewing two new potential clients today. Working on the new PianoSD

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Glad to say we have a new website design in the works. http://PianoSD.com

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Into phase 2 of the website redo today. Data partially loaded for California. Texas is next. Cant wait!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Growing my client list. Things are beginning to do good. Working on email balsts today and sending out tonight. Moving along. hallelujah

Friday, August 5, 2011

Putting stage two of our business plan into place.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Smith Alarms and Electronics is among my latest clients. Very excited to see them grow.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Getting all of the new accounts settled in thier programs. Exciting!

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Up to a record amount of postings and blogs today. Fingers are tired. HAHAHAHA

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Just picked up a new dealer and am working with their social medias and blogs. Piano Social Directory is scheduled to launch August 7. Cant wait http://pianosd.com

Sunday, June 26, 2011

New and VERY exciting news !! Stay tuned. Press releases are being written. News soon. http://PianoSD.com

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Blogging and Posting all day today for piano dealers and artists. New announcements coming. Very Exciting. http://pianosd.com

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Posting and blogging all day. www.PianoSD.com

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Japan is such a great country with lovely people. Our thougths and prayers are with them. www.pianosd.com

Monday, March 7, 2011

Hoping that your rainy day reminds you of a song. What is it?

Friday, March 4, 2011

Making music. www.PianoSD.com

Monday, February 28, 2011

I didnt get an Oscar last night but there is always next year.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

How many rain songs do you know? Singing in the rain.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

There is never enough music. See more about the history of the piano on my blog. www.pianosd.com/blog/
Change is on its way. Exciting.

Monday, February 21, 2011

What is your favorite music style?

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Next installment on the history of the piano. http://ping.fm/6cJ8X

More on the history of Pianos

Cristofori had made a HUGE impact on keyboard instruments by inventing and producing the first of what would become known as the piano. Although the initial pianos were an incredible feat, there was important differences between what was originally created and the newer instruments.

The first pianos were different in many ways. First, the sound was considerably more weak than we presently enjoy. There were a number of reasons why. One of the reasons was that the soundboard of the piano was made differently and the ability of the artist to project at the volumes that are now possible was not possible with the soundboard of that era.

Strings were another issue. At the time, the string makers were not able to produce strings with the diameter necessary to produce the sound. They did not have the technology to understand that the bass strings could be wrapped with copper and the inside diameter of the strings could be increased in order to make a larger sound.

The biggest differences would come in the action of the keys on the piano. The action of that era was not only uneven but, the hammers were not controllable. The hammers could not strike the strings with the same velocity and with the same power as they do now. The action was somewhat more fragile and strike points were somewhat different. All of this added to the resistance that the artist felt when he/she began to play.

It has been said that “they just aren’t made like they used to be” and that is very true. When I am asked my opinion I often respond with “you are correct. Its better”.

I hope to be able to explain this in more detail in the next few blogs.

Ric Overton

posted by Ric Overton of www.PianoSD.com via www.MaxMorganDesign.com

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Take a look at my blog tonight for the beginning of the series "In the beginning" at www.PianoSD.com - http://ping.fm/QGyc6
Making Music Today. www.PianoSD.com

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

It seems that pianos are making a comeback. Do you have a favorite piano player?

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentines Day....hope your making music with someone today......www.pianosd.com

Friday, February 11, 2011

Read this post by Sorrento Valley Music

One of the most prestigious names in the piano industry and one of the most sought after pianos on the planet have finally arrived. ESTONIA !!!!!!!

http://www.estoniapiano.com is the official website of Estonia pianos. Estonia has been a world-wide brand that has caught much attention lately because of its sound and most of all the quality as compared to the price.

Dr. Laul, President of Estonia Piano is also a fan of San Diego. He has for many years vacationed here and is obviously quite jealous of our weather as compared to the weather in his corporate offices in New York.

Along with his father, Dr. Laul has really excelled in making Estonia a serious piano for serious musicians across the country. This fact can be seen in the debates and comments by dealers who do carry Estonia and dealers who do not carry Estonia on the popular website www.PianoWorld.com . Here you will find many owners and enthusiasts who have fallen in love with this great piano.

ESTONIA PIANOS
When I had the opportunity to take Estonia in San Diego, I knew that I had to take this chance. Estonia is very well priced and is among one of the finer pianos being made today. They are manufactured in Estonia under tight scrutiny with much attention being paid to detail.


Dr. Laul insists on perfection because he is also a concert musician. He was first a musician before getting involved with his Dad in the Piano business.
Because of Dr. Laul’s leadership he has made Estonia one of the leading pianos in the United States as well as the rest of the world.

Having Estonia in San Diego at Sorrento Valley Music is very important because whether you are buying a piano in La Jolla, a piano for your church in Carlsbad or putting a piano in your home in San Diego, Estonia and Sorrento Valley Music is a logical choice.

We look forward to seeing you. Please visit our website for store hours and location and then drop by and see us. We would love to meet you. www.SorrentoValleyMusic.com

Tonight I learned about this and I must say that I have long been of Dr. Indrek Laul and his father with Estonia Pianos. I am happy to see that Estonia has finally arrived in San Diego. If you get a chance to see these great pianos stop by and take a look. You will be impressed.
Congratulations to the folks at Sorrento Valley Music. www.SorrentoValleyMusic.com
Ric
posted by Ric Overton of www.PianoSD.com via www.MaxMorganDesign.com
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Dr. Indrek Laul, Estonia, Estonia in San Diego, Estonia in sorrento valley music, Estonia Pianos, great piano, leading pianos, New York, piano business, pianos in Carlsbad, pianos in La Jolla, pianos in san diego, President of Estonia, Ric Overton, San Diego, serious piano, Sorrento Valley Music, United States, world-wide estonia piano, www.estoniapiano.com, www.MaxMorganDesign.com, www.PianoSD.com, www.pianoworld.com, www.SorrentoValleyMusic.com | No Comments »
Working on Social Media for the dealers and artists today while enjoying some really cool easy listening music. www.pianosd.com

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

What is life without music. Pretty boring. www.pianosd.com

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Friday, February 4, 2011

Music is being played around the world right now. Hope you have it too. www.pianosd.com

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Let music fill the air. Happy Chinese New Year.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Praying for Egypt today.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Working on a proposal for a piano manufacturer an organ manufacturer and two piano dealers for their social media platform. Keep your fingers crossed.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Let music fill your mind today. Then tell us the song in your head. www.pianosd.com

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Music is playing all over the world right now. Amazing isn't it. www.pianosd.com

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Making today count. www.PianoSD.com

Friday, January 28, 2011

Listening to Seth Rye and Rosemary Bailey play the organ. www.PianoSD.com

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

posting and blogging, posting and blogging, posting and blogging..........
Talking about Social Media and how it affects you.
Ric@PianoSD.com

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

My life has been all about music. Join me. www.PianoSD.com

Monday, January 24, 2011

Working on new project announcements. Cant wait to tell everyone. www.pianosd.com

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Working on social media for my piano dealers and artsists today. www.pianosd.com

Friday, January 21, 2011

Do you have a favorite type of music OR what is your favorite song? www.pianosd.com

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

I had a blast this past weekend at NAMM. It was nice to see the increase in business for the manufacturers and to hear of the upkick in business at the music dealers stores. www.PianoSD.com

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Wishing all of the NAMM attendees a great show. Hope it is better than ever. www.pianosd.com

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

1/11/11-what a great day www.pianosd.com

Friday, January 7, 2011

I have added another piano dealer to the list of dealers that we are doing all of their social media for. Hopefully, three more within the week. I am enjoying my participation in the music business and able to continue with my passion. More exciting news on the way.