Baldwin Corfam Butts and Backchecks

[Gordon Holley]

List and Fellow Technicians
	I'll preface this with ALWAYS BE ON YOUR TOES, YOU NEVER KNOW WHO IS 
IN ANOTHER ROOM LISTENING.
	I tuned a Baldwin Hamilton Studio Console, 1982, this past Saturday 
morning for a neighbor.  He had already told me that it hadn't been 
tuned in some years and that there was also something wrong with it, 
some kind of a clicking sound.
	I opened the top, took off the front, sat down and played about 32 
bars of "Over The Rainbow" softly and didn't take long to determine 
it was muchly out of tune and I did hear the clicking.  I had already 
told Bob that it very likely would need a pitch raise, so I got my 
SAT III on and tuned and proceeded to make 6 checks on all the "A's". 
A6 through A3 were about 39.5 cents flat and A3 through A0 were about 
59.5 cents flat.  
	All this time Bob, the owner, was sitting in the living room and 
watching and listening; "Yes Bob, I'll need to do a pitch raise", 
"that's fine, we'll be in the kitchen with our daughter and son-in-
law".
	I started tuning and still listening for the clicking and trying to 
remember what I had read on the list about Baldwin actions.  The more 
I strained the brain cells, and continued the pitch raise, the more I 
"stewed" about what "had I read, what was the subject?".
	I continued on for about 15 minutes and was aware that someone had 
walked into the livingroom and was standing a little behind me 
listening and watching.
	I finally turned around and the son-in-law steps up and hands me his 
business card and introduces himself, "Hi Gordon, I'm Sam Eberwein, I 
used to work for Baldwin when this piano was build and sold to Bob, 
but I left Baldwin and I now work for Steinway.  I'm District Manager 
for Northern Indiana and into the Chicago area, mind if I sit down I 
want to show you something?". ("Hell no, I'm going to learn 
something")
	He then asked if I was familiar with Corfam?, "That's the product 
name I was trying to remember, Yes, I remember now the discussions on 
the list about clicking noises and Corfam".
	Then he proceeded to tell me about the use of Corfam on the butts 
and back catchers, and after 12 to 13 years, then Baldwin discovered 
the problems.  He told me he had left Baldwin some years back before 
the purchase by Gibson and knew that there was no way that there 
would be any warranty coverage now by Gibson. 
	"So, tell me, how would you remove the Corfam and replace with 
buckskin?".
	Apparently the "Brain Gods" were with me and I remembered what Joe 
Garrett had recently written in a thread "The proper kit for 
replacing Corfam is :Real buckskin, Hide glue, a sharp knife and 
lotsa time". I had remembered other participants talking about this 
problem going back into 1996 and was sure I'd find all I needed in 
the archives, "And brother I sure did, all this morning".  
	This Corfam was the light brown and hard, under the butt, when the 
jack bounced back after let-off, it tapped on the hard corfam.  Could 
not detect any click at the backchecks, and they had the corfam also. 
 Sam explained, that at the time the corfam was used, buckskin was 
difficult to get.  (I guess he should know)
	Sam asked me to describe the procedure to replace the butts corfam 
with buckskin, and having recently replaced the buckskin on 88 
"Kimball" type knuckles on my grand, having plenty of buckskin 
leftover, had the Olfa cutter and self-healing board, lots of hot-
hide glue crystals, lots of wall-paper remover, I walked through what 
I believed it would take.
	Sam sat there nodding his head approvingly and then asked if $500 
would cover the labor intensive procedure.  "Yes, I would think so, 
said I".  "Dad, do you want to make that investment in this piano 
now"?.  "The piano is probably now worth about $2300".
	Well, it was decided that Dad and Mom would think this over.
	With the pitch raise and a double pass fine tuning completed Sam 
asked me to give him some of my business cards and proceeded to ask 
if I knew "Doyle, at Goshen College, did I know this technician or 
that one, was I a member of the PTG?".
	Next time he would be visiting Bob and Anne he'd bring along a stack 
of Steinway information and specifications.  
	"And by the way that was a good tuning, says Sam, but Bob, it will 
probably be a little out of tune  in an hour or so", and explained 
that the piano should be tuned again in another 3 months, and that 
this was a sever pitch raise".   He told Dad that he recommends 
tuning 4 times a year on Steinways.  
	Sure would be nice to have a guy like this along with me every time 
I run into this kind of a piano, ya know "Baldwins".  I tune other 
Hamiltons and had not paid much attention to clicking noises, I sure 
will in the future, but then, neither had the owners.
	Well, my fellow technicians, always be on your toes, hope that you 
don't have a senior moment when your called on, particularly by 
someone that could delve into more technical info than your brain 
cells could store at the moment. 
	I only wanted to share this with you all and thank this list for 
"being there when you need help".
	My Regards,

	Gordon Holley
	Goshen, IN
	Associate Member
	Indiana Chapter 467