On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 5:55 PM, Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu > wrote: > Hi all, > > Just went to a usual customer with a beautiful 9'2" Bluthner at a church - > 3 years old which I love to take care of. the pastor's sister asked me to > check out her DH Baldwin about 25 years old and its a POS or PSO as you may > wish to term it. She is willing to spend thousands on it rather than > getting a new piano as $4-5K is better than $15K for a new PSO. > > What do I tell her?. Its a DH Baldwin, somebody filed the hammers off > flat, somebody else ruined the shanks, the hammer bushings are shot, it > barely plays, etc. > > Is it toast, or would $4-5K fix it if she reallyy wants to keep this thing > as she's very attached to it? The geometry is way out, and you know....it's > a mid '80's Samick. I didn't check the action brackets, or anything > really...I just wanted to leave! I just looked for free and told her I would > get back to her with some good techs in the not so near area (there are > none) that might have time to do this sort of thing. I'm too busy at UNL to > handle this sort of thing, and our director would not look nicely on my > bringing in a "stray" piano from the wilderness unless.......$$$$$ donated > to the SOM (maybe then, so) this is an "In Shop" project, to be sure. > > Is it worth it? Believe me the Bluthner is my favorite in NE! If you were > a mechanic working on Fords, would you drive 1.5 hours to work on a Ferrari? > what a fantasic piano! I LOVE working on this piano. It's my favorite in the > state! It might truely be the best piano in NE. > > Best, Paul I wouldn't write this piano off, Samick made a decent piano in the '80's. Let's look at it another way if it were a S&S with these problems would you be questioning the work? Perhaps for this customer it's the equivilant. So you replace shanks/flanges, upgrade the hammers(I like Abel lites on small grands like this) I doubt the geometry is off by that much once all the new parts are in place, bush keys, regulate & for 4 or 5 grand, maybe less, she'll be thrilled & you'll be a hero If you can't do it, farm it out. I have done this same rehab on small Kimball grands, Ivers & Pond, Yamaha, Packard & others, in fact the Kimballs & Packard had pear shaped knuckles & I converted them to standard knuckles. 2 of them have the new WNG carbon fiber shanks & flanges. Mike -- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100902/696e7c70/attachment.htm>
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