Electropiano (was RE: EVESTAFF)

[Mark Story]

We had 25 of these when I started here in '79. The Achilles heel of these
things was the "jack" and "butt" arrangement. The "jack" was actually a
spring steel strip with at tip sheathed with originally buckskin and later
the synthetic material. The "butt" was a capstan. Eventually the "jack"
covering would compress and form a divot. When this happened, forget about
repetition. I actually undertook the task of replacing this "jack" covering.
Balwin sent me some strips of the latter material. This was some kind of
foam vinyl backing with a Teflon impregnated coating layer (Del or someone
else here will remember the name of this stuff). The nightmare was to find
an adhesive that would attach this stuff without delaminating it. I
eventually found some polyurethane glue that worked well. I don't remember
how many I did. It was successful, but as you can imagine at hideous labor
cost. Only in a State University.

Mark Story, RPT
Eastern Washington University
mstory@ewu.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Gregory Torres <Tunapiana@adisfwb.com>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Friday, May 29, 1998 12:32 AM
Subject: Re: EVESTAFF


>Bill,
>
>The first time I saw those was in the new "piano lab" music room  when I
was in
>junior high. There were about a dozen in this one room and I though to
myself then
>"I pity the tuner who has to tune and repair these babies..."  This was in
'70 I
>believe.
>
>Sorry all, I also just had a memory flashback....<g>
>
>Regards,
>Greg Torres
>
>Regards,
>Greg Torres
>
>
>
>Maxpiano@aol.com wrote:
>
>> Barrie,
>>
>> In a message dated 98-05-28 18:44:18 EDT, you write:
>>
>> << The mini piano the guy who designed it
>>  either had an extremely good sense of humor or hated piano tuners. >>
>>
>> One of the first pianos I ever tuned was a Hardman, Peck Minipiano of
this
>> sort.  Talk about a learning experience!
>>
>> I had a flashback when Baldwin came out with their "Electropiano" that
had the
>> action under the keys, trichord unisons and the tuning pins sticking out
the
>> back.  I was working for a dealer that sold them.  I'm thankful not to
have
>> seen one in years.
>>
>> Bill Maxim, RPT
>
>
>