Hard to open piano

[Susan Kline]

Kit --

I suspect from your description of the table-look to the piano when closed
that the rubber buttons on top (toward the rear) hide screws. It's good to
have spare rubber buttons (APSCO sells a box with a good assortment) since
it's easy to ruin them prying them off when they are old. Then I believe
there may be a couple more small screws, lurking under an edge down by the
music desk somewhere, as well as two on the top of the desk in plain view.
Take out all four to remove the music desk. 

I haven't encountered the style the others are describing, with superlong
screws through the keybed (but thanks for the warning, folks!). 

Your question reminds me of a time I almost didn't get into a piano. It was
a little pink thing, no hinges on the rear, no sign of fasteners of any
kind. I tweaked and poked and fiddled. I even pulled off the bottom board in
hopes of looking up from underneath! (It wouldn't have worked.) I then went
to the car for a flashlight, leaving my large screwdriver on the bench. When
I got back in, my customer had the screwdriver in her hand and a big grin on
her face, and the lid was off, though the hidden keyways on the underside of
it were ripped completely loose. The magic trick would have been to press
down hard and to the rear. 

I showed her how to fix the ripped up screw holes while I tuned. She said
that one reason she had wanted to get it tuned was to find out how it
opened. The pink was factory-original, by the way.

Good luck.

Susan

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At 07:51 PM 11/14/97 -0900, you wrote:
>Well, this is slightly embarrassing.  Went to tune an Acrosonic spinet this
>morning and couldn't open the top.  This is an older piano, probably early
>1950s, with a unique top that folds up just like a table when it's closed.
>When it's open, the front folds back on itself and it looks pretty normal.
>
>There are no hinges showing on the back of the piano, leading me to think
>the top lifts off, somehow.  I couldn't find any screws, and I tried to
>push the top forward and back, thinking it used screwheads in a friction
>plate of some kind.  No luck.  
>
>Anyone have experience with a Baldwin of this style?  If the answer is
>really simple and will make me look foolish, you might respond privately.
>
>Thanks
>Kit Cleworth
>
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Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com


"By using your intelligence, you can sometimes make your problems twice as
complicated."
			-- Ashleigh Brilliant