Acrosonic Spinet

[Avery Todd]

Dianne,

   In my earlier years working at a Baldwin dealership, I serviced many
of these with that type of problem. Of course, the obvious first thing
"quick fix" is to try spacing the hammers over in the desired direction.
You might have to file the hammers also if there are "good" string grooves
or the hammers will twist back into the grooves when played putting a lot
of stress on the flanges.
   You should also check the travelling to make sure that's not the
problem. Correct as needed. Just remember that with the action in the
piano (vertical), you paper the opposite side of the flange than you would
in a grand. If it's travelling to the right, you need to paper the left
side of the flange. (Have I got this right? It's been quite a few years
since I've had to do this.) :-)
   If these two things aren't the problem, the hammers were probably glued
on slightly crooked and/or the shanks have warped over the years causing a
twist in the wrong direction. In this case, take your trusty Ungar heat gun
(or whatever you use to burn shanks), apply the heat to the hammer shank
and twist slightly in the desired direction.  It will probably take a
combination
of burning and spacing to correct the problem. Watch for any rubbing of
hammer felt and tails on adjacent hammers.
   Check the hammer fit to the strings, file as needed, and (hopefully)
you're done. Then you can go ahead and finish the pitch adjustment you
started the first time. :-)

>Hi, all.  Ran into a situation last night and wanted your feedback on what
>would have been the best way to deal with it.  Tuning for professional
>play; they were using an old Baldwin Acrosonic because it had "the right
>look"; 50 cents low in pitch.  Had one hour to get in shape during the
>crew's dinner break.  Bass hammers up towards the break hitting LH string
>of next note; causing two notes to sound when damper pedal was being used.
>They told me about this when I arrived

   For the double striking, a quick fix would usually be to increase the
let-off and/or increase the key dip. These pianos usually have too much key
dip anyway, though, so the let-off thing would probably be the best. If
they're checking too far from the strings, reducing that might help also.
Just be sure there's enough aftertouch.
   I'm sure I've probably overlooked some possibility but if so, I'm sure
someone will jump in and add to this.
   Hope this helps. Good luck and have fun. (Especially if you have to
remove any shanks to paper the flanges.)

>Also had two badly bouncing/double striking hammers in this same virused
>>section.
>
>Comments, help, suggestions...?  I was able to get it up and running as
>good as possible before their curtain, but I will be faced with this
>instrument again in a couple of days and there is always a better way...
>
>Thanks!
>
>Dianne

_____________________________________
Avery Todd
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
http://www.uh.edu/music/
_____________________________________