Sheesh. Ya try to write a rant with a little over-the-top-humor and end up having to defend yourself .... well, okay, here's the story: Attached picture shows "good" flange and broken flange. My whining was really NOT aimed at anyone personally. But this design—on casual inspection by ANYONE—would appear dopey, incredibly weak. When I wrote it, I had just come from the home of a nice young couple with limited income (she's in a wheelchair, he works as a prison guard) who had bought a very nice used Baldwin for their three kids to learn on. They bought it from a lady who never much played it, apparently, because it is ten years old and there are almost NO grooves on the hammers, just black marks from the strings (manufacturing oil, I suppose). Anyway, It was about 120 cents flat. In starting to do the pitch correction, I hit A0 and heard the most interesting rattle and confusion of bass sounds. I looked at the dampers and found that eleven (count that: 11) of the dampers weren't working--no springs! I removed the action and found that those idiotic little flanges had itty-bitty projections molded into them to hold the center coil of the spring. I mean thin and tiny and barely long enough for the coil. Now they must pay to replace all the damper flange/spring assemblies with good ol' Schaff 514W's in hard rock maple. I'm not opposed to plastic, per se, and, having been owner of several businesses over the years, I can certainly appreciate the need to watch costs, etc. But NOT when your reputation is at stake. Also, why screw up a good thing? After all, we've all made a living tuning pianos with flanges that have held up for 50 to a hundred years, or more. And, yes, I've made a lot of money on Baldwin pianos, too. Their basic designs can't be unduly faulted. And these flanges must have been a very short-run experiment because I've never seen them before ... and frankly hope I never do, again. <G> Alan R. Barnard Salem, MO P.S. For those who suggested using repair springs on the old flanges. Nah. With so many broken (despite a distinct lack of hard use!)one can only project more trouble down the line with expenses and "downtime" every so often. Photo at: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/files/attachments/a9/cb/93/9b/ BaldwinsFolly.JPG Alternate URL: http://tinyurl.com/yqm4 -----Original Message----- From: Clyde Hollinger [mailto:cedel@supernet.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 5:07 AM To: Pianotech Subject: Re: Stupid Flange Tricks Alan, If you have no special reason for asking the question, then I conclude the flanges have always worked just fine. If they work just fine, then how are they poorly designed, and why the verbal lashing for their designer? Somewhere the logic of this scenario fails me. I service a lot of Baldwin spinets and consoles, and I've never had a reason to even check what the damper flanges were like. Clyde Alan wrote: Who the %&#@* were the cost-cutting, short-sighted, pencil-pushing, inconsiderate, spineless, dung-brained, pin-headed little engineering/management weenies at Baldwin who put those stupid small, thin, weak, poorly-designed brownish grey plastic flanges on their console/spinet dampers in 1981??? No special reason for asking; just curious ...Alan R. BarnardSalem, MO --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.525 / Virus Database: 322 - Release Date: 10/9/2003 _______________________________________________ Files list info: http://ptg.org/mailman/listinfo/files
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