New, Improved Baldwins

[David M. Porritt]

Ron:

We have 3 of these newest Baldwins at SMU and they are indeed improved.
The ribs are now morticed into the rim, and the "killer octave" is much
improved.  I've been impressed.

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 1/22/01 at 10:20 PM Ron Nossaman wrote:

>In the vendor exhibition arena at Arlington, I talked briefly with the
>Baldwin rep who told me about some planned changes in the product line.
>Today I finally got to tune  a new L, so I got a chance to look one over.
>Looks like a rubbed out polyester finish, and has the three stick lid prop
>- as promised. It also has a fancy new scripty and colorful soundboard
>decal, also as promised, as well as a slow fall fallboard. What wasn't
>promised was the fact that the tuning pin holes in the plate webbing were
>drilled out to, near as I could measure, a fer sure full 7/16"! There
>wasn't a single solitary pin in the whole piano leaning against the plate.
>I was quite impressed. Why didn't he mention that? The pins were left a
bit
>high (coil bottoms 5mm - 7.5mm off the plate), but they were unusually
>uniform in torque, and not a snap through a quarter semitone pitch raise
>and tuning, though they were pretty tight. They were generally quite
>controllable and comfortable. The strings were probably a little high on
>the hitch pins at around 7mm, but the bearing throughout was just right by
>my reckoning, the soundboard crown was positive, and the overall sound of
>the piano was quite presentable if bright. Some general hammer softening
>and voicing could produce a quite nice sounding piano out of this one. The
>regulation is pretty ragged, but the piano has been in service since
>August, so I don't know how it was on delivery. Since I don't recall ever
>seeing a regulation improve under hard use, I assume it was better five
>months ago. If this is step one in the new enhanced design and quality
>control regimen, I certainly approve. I also hope they leave the nice
>marketing enhancements and continue to improve on the performance and
>quality control tolerances. These could easily be very nice instruments.
>
>
>Ron N




David M. Porritt
dporritt@swbell.net
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275