Baldwin L rusty strings

[Gilreath@aol.com]

Avery,

This sounds very unusual for a Baldwin of this vintage.  (In other words, I
haven't seen this particular problem on the bunch that I work on.  More often
I find rust at the string/felt contact points.) Do you have any other hostory
on the instrument? For example, who's been working on it in the past? Why did
the customer switch? Can you contact the other tech to see if anything was
done to posibly cause this problem? (Although that's a difficult question to
ask someone!)

Go ahead and check with Kent.  If he does authorize restringing, these are a
breeze to work on.  He has the full instructions and it's one of the easiest
restringing jobs in my experience.

Hope all goes well and let us know what you find out.

Allan

Allan L. Gilreath, RPT
Gilreath Piano & Organ Co.
Calhoun, GA USA
Gilreath@aol.com

In a message dated 98-06-01 18:47:11 EDT, you write:

<< List,
 
    I ran into something today that I've never seen in almost 25 years of
 doing this type of work. Maybe I've just been lucky.
    Anyway, I was called to tune a 2-1/2 yr. old Baldwin L. It had two
 broken strings, one on C6 and the other in the upper part of the tenor bass
 string area. The unusual thing, to me, is that BOTH strings broke on top of
 the bridge.
    I discovered that the entire long bridge has this VERY rusty wire ONLY
 on top of the bridge between the bridge pins. The pins are the copper type.
 The other tenor bass strings down at the end of the long bridge where this
 one broke are even more rusty than the others. They look like strings I've
 seen on pianos that have had "swamp coolers" blowing on them for 20-30
 years.
    Another strange thing is that the bass strings on the 'bass' bridge have
 NO  rust at all, except for the usual expected in a climate like Houston.
 The speaking lengths of the others and the waste end past the bridge are
 all normal, also.
    I'm going to call Kent Webb tomorrow in case this turns out to be a
 warranty type of thing, but in the meantime I thought I'd check and see if
 anyone else has ever seen this on a piano that new. The customer is very
 particular about the piano and is very concerned about this being a
 continuing problem.
    I don't see how there is any way it could be just the wire itself
 because the rest of the lengths are fine. Could it be the bridge lubricant?
 Could the bridge itself have held moisture in the air long enough at some
 point for this to happen? Considering the type of wood normally used there,
 I wouldn't think so.
    I'm out of ideas. Any out there. This is an accu-just hitch pin piano,
 so *I* don't "really" want to restring it even if that should turn out to
 be the only remedy. Any other suggestions?
    Thanks again.
 
 Avery
  >>