Baldwin action

[Stephen Birkett]

Interesting sequel to D.Stanwood's remarks that the Balwin action
was heavy. Comments appended below appeared on the piano newsgroup....


Stephen Birkett (Fortepianos)
Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
tel: 519-885-2228
fax: 519-763-4686

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Comments from a pianist on Baldwin piano:

>>>Well, recently I had the chance to go visit a friend who *happened*
to have a Baldwin grand piano.

>>>Anyway, I obviously pounced on the opportunity to play on a grand
piano.  As I started playing, I realized that the key action was
*very* heavy...  I've played on concert-size grands and stuff, and I
don't recall the actions ever being this heavy.. I mean, it was so
heavy, I couldn't play through a short piece (lots of single-note
movements, and less chords) without tiring quite a bit.

>>>I tried to like, play a very loud chord, and I couldn't... It just
felt like the keys had this immense friction, and it took LOTS of
power to make the hammer go.  This feeling sort of made me
wonder.. Most of the time, one associates "heavy" key action due to
the length of the thing that lifts the hammer, etc...  but are there
ones that are made heavy due to friction by design?  The keys
uniformly felt "stiff". It was very difficult to play this piano. Come
to think of it, I don't think I ever played on a piano with the keys
tiring me out like that.  (and I've played pretty big grand pianos
too).  Usually, when I "upgraded" the piano size, although the keys
may feel heavier, I found it easier to play because it was easier to
control the dynamics with the larger piano. I guess a better
explanation would be, moving the key itself was pretty resistant-less,
but you can feel the hammer part teetering at the other end of the
key.. But this one... it almost felt like the keys were the harder
ones to press while the hammer was "free" and had very little momentum
(did that make any sense?)

>>>This piano was moved from Massachusetts to California about 3
years ago, I think...  May be the humidity thing is causing this?
(can a drier weather cause something like this?  I would think the
opposite..  things getting loose, happening)

>>>Then again, I could have been completely out of shape, and also
sitting too low on the bench and didn't get enough weight to bring out
the sound...  :(

  Isako