Bedevilled by a Baldwin yet again

[Paul McCloud]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Dave:

            Yesterday I came up with a nifty idea for getting rid of
that disturbing click on a Baldwin Hamilton.  The piano had been sold
with the promise (!) that I would take care of the noise.  After boldly
declaring it was simply not possible to do without replacing the hammer
butts, I swallowed my pride and realized the sale would fall through if
I didn't do something quick!   What I did was to place a self adhesive
felt dot (the kind you put under objects you don't want to scratch the
surface they sit on) about 3/8" diameter on the back edge of the jack
tip, with the felt just peeking over the tip edge.  The felt is thus on
the butt side and does move the jack out slightly away from the butt.
You just want to cushion the leading edge of the jack tip so it doesn't
make that sound.  The self adhesive barely covers the edge and just a
little on the jack top insures the felt will stay there.  Long term I
don't know if this will be permanent, but at least the piano will stay
sold.

            If you do this repair, I would offer the following procedure
to save you time.  I wasted hours removing each whippen, installing the
felt and replacing the whippen.   I did two sections until I realized
how it could be done much easier and faster.  I removed all the bridle
tapes, then the letoff rail.  I used an action jig to lay the action
face down.  The jack tips could then be accessed easily.  I used acetone
to remove the dag from the tips so the adhesive would stick better.

            I had to do a little regulating afterwards.  The lost motion
will be disturbed, as well as the letoff adjustment.  Most hammers were
blocking after I installed the felts.  

            Bottom line is, if you can't soften the butt leather, why
not soften the jack tip (edge)?  I'd have rather had a system to cut the
edge of the jack and install some kind of rubber, but this would have
taken more time than to replace the butts.

            FWIW.  Hope it helps.

            Paul McCloud

            San Diego 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Piannaman@aol.com
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 7:25 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: Bedevilled by a Baldwin yet again

 

List, 

I was finally able to get back to my friend's house to check out the
Baldwin Studio that was making a really obnoxious clicking noise.  I
went out to the lady's house today to try to solve the problem.  Well, I
was right....there was not enough keydip!  It took me awhile to figure
out what was causing the noise.  Turns out it was the backslap of the
jack on the corfam that was creating the sound.  The harder I hit it the
harder it slapped back.  The nanosecond delay also confused me and made
it seem almost like a rattle. 

I gave it a quick remedy:  I de-regulated the let-off buttons half a
turn, and voila, the clacking was gone in every key.  The jacks were now
a couple of millimeters away from the rock-hard corfam on the rebound
due to the introduction of more aftertouch.   

I did not have time to regulate the keyheight and keydip this afternoon,
but those are the next things I will check.  Increasing let-off distance
is a very temporary remedy.  There is nowhere near the power in the
hammer blow as there was before my "fix." But the noise that was driving
Linda buggy is a thing of the past. 

Thanks for all of the input! 

Dave Stahl 

In a message dated 5/10/03 7:25:27 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
Piannaman@aol.com writes: 










Just a little to much key dip. The jack is slapping the let off rail a
bit hard. Maybe the glue on the felt there was over done. Did the
clacking start when you took out the lost motion? Sure sign you have to
much dip. 
Keith Roberts 



Keith, 

This just got me thinking.  If anything, the dip is too shallow.  The
key height does not seem right to me, either:  it's too low, if I were
to judge just by looking at it.   I got so focused on the action, I
neglected the keys.  I'm wondering if maybe certain keys are hitting the
keyslip.  It sure sounded like whippen/hammer assembly noise, but noises
do tend to get tossed around in there, don't they? 

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.  I'll let you know what it was
when I figure it out! 

 


---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/51/7e/94/8c/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--