spinets

[stanwood]

>Michiel van Loon wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> Northern American techs.
> Today, for the first time in my 6 year old career as a piano tuner, I tuned
> a Baldwin spinet.
>
> But please keep them on your side of the Atlantic.

Dear Michiel,

One thing I remember from my statistics class is that a sample of one
doesn't give you a fair evaluation of a group of samples.  There are
certainly some awful spinets out there but a case in point in favor of the
Baldwin spinet is an Acrosonic that belongs to my family.  It was made in
1954.  The piano has beautiful tone and stays in tune for years. Actually it
goes out of tune when the climate changes and comes back into almost perfect
tune when the climate is the same as when it was in tune.  I tune it about
once every 5 years. The construction and design of this instrument is all
the best that a spinet can be and it's very nice!  It's too bad they aren't
all so nice.  (Yamaha used to  make great spinets.)  I quess my point is
that it is possible to make a very good spinet but mostly they're just a low
end product.

David Stanwood