American Made Pianos

An Outstanding Manufacturing Tradition

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Chase

Factory Location: Norwalk, Ohio
Serial Number Dates: 1885 - 1938

History:

The Chase Piano Company began in 1875 making organs. Piano production began around 1885. The company had a strong brandname, but went through a series of merges, first with the United Piano Corporation, then the Lester Piano Company of Philadelphia, PA, then Aeolian-American Company, and finally the America Piano Corporation.

 

Information source: Pierce Piano Atlas

The Resonance of a Continent: The American Piano Tradition

The American piano manufacturing tradition is a story of unparalleled craftsmanship meeting the boundless natural resources of a new world. At its heart lies the selection of materials—most notably the vast, old-growth spruce forests of the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast. These superior stands of Sitka and Adirondack spruce provided the tight-grained, resonant timber essential for crafting the world’s finest soundboards, offering a tonal depth and "singing" quality that European makers envied. Combined with a relentless spirit of industrial innovation, American makers refined the overstrung scale and the heavy cast-iron plate, creating instruments of such structural integrity and powerful projection that they redefined the modern piano.