I've been mysterious about it, but for no good reason. It's my piano, a seven foot Baldwin grand, model F, serial number 148548. I bought the piano about fifteen years ago and worked very hard to pay off the rather large loan that I had to take to be able to afford it. Large concert grade instruments like this can be very expensive (I've never paid that much for a car, for example). I was very proud to have finally finished paying that loan eight years ago.
According to Pierce's Piano Atlas, this piano was made in 1962. It's only a few hundred numbers away from one of my most favorite instruments, the F in the large second floor classroom in Cogswell Hall, my undergraduate music school in the middle eighties. That piano was in awful shape cosmetically, with most of the veneer cracked and peeling and the case scratched and dented. As nasty as it was outside, though, it was in near-perfect shape inside. The action was solid and very pleasant to play on, and this piano just sang for me.
As ugly as it was nobody else wanted to practice on it. I was able to use it almost any time I wanted when class wasn't in session.
I'm sure that piano is gone now, since the school went all Steinway recently. It was probably taken to the surplus depot and offered at auction. If it got more than a few hundred dollars I would be very surprised.
In 1993 I was working in a piano store in San Antonio, teaching lessons and trying to sell pianos. (I was very good at teaching and very bad at selling, but that's another post.) This store sold mostly Young Chang pianos and their stencil brands (including Wurlitzer, Chickering, and a few others, all made in their Korean factory now) and was across the street from the local Baldwin dealer.
This piano came in on a trade (Baldwin F, number 148548) and it was like my old friend had fallen through a wormhole in time and was sitting there in almost-new condition. It was easily the best instrument in the store. (Of course, it was an American-made Baldwin from one of the last of the old-world master craftsman/apprentice factories working in the US at the time.) The Young Changs were decent pianos, but they couldn't hold a candle to this Baldwin. The store manager hated that. She insisted that the piano absolutely had to go by the end of business that day.
So, I got a smoking deal on an incredible piano.
There's another F here in Tucson that's very close to mine on the stage of the Temple of Music and Art. It's been a more heavily used than mine, but it has a very similar tone and response.
I started using F148548 as a handle when I was faced with creating an online identity and every variation of Chris, ChrisBear, TallBear, BearMusic and so forth was already taken. F148548 has been reliably available and cryptic enough to give me a little bit of mystery. Of course, now that I've given away that secret I hope you still think I'm cute.
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