Baldwins cost more to tune?

[Brian Trout]

Hi Diane,

Having worked for the local Baldwin dealer, I can honestly say that a lot of
the NEW Baldwin pianos do have very tight pinblocks.  I've seen grands and
verticals alike with snappy, jumpy, absolutely miserably tight tuning pins.
But for most that I've seen after a year or so, they usually calm down
pretty nicely and become very much more 'normal' in the feel of the tuning
pins.  (Overall, I'd rather have them a little jumpy for the first year than
have to try to explain why the customer's 5 year old Samick needs to be
repinned because the tuning pins are all too loose to hold a tuning.)

The Baldwins can be a pain when they have those jumpy tuning pins in part
because of the ease of which that wire can move around the vertical hitch
pins.

Even if a tuner does decide that a few extra dollars are in order for one of
the "Mr. Snappy"s, it would likely only be for the first or second tunings,
maybe the third.  And since your Howard was redone 10 years ago, even if it
was done pretty tight, it might be real nice by now.

Good luck,

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net

----- Original Message -----
From: Diane Hofstetter <dianepianotuner@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 1999 5:40 PM
Subject: Baldwins cost more to tune?


> Dear List,
>
>    I have a person coming to look at a Baldwin Howard grand that we have
for
> sale which was restrung and received new action parts about 10 years ago.
> The lady has been studying Larry Fine's book and read that piano techs
don't
> like to tune Baldwins because they are so hard to tune.  She is worried
that
> the piano will cost her much more over the years because the tuners will
> charge her extra to tune it because it is a Baldwin.
>
>    Do you charge an additional fee to tune a Baldwin?
>
>    Thanks,
>    Diane
>
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