Tight pinblocks

[Ron Nossaman]

>You know, I actually did think about sticking a heater rod underneath the
>pinblock, but I don't have the guts to try it on someone else's brand new
>Baldwin 'L'.
>
>(This will actually be a short post.  My arm still feels a little tingly
>from the abuse of having to tune the beast... and right after a Steinway
>1098... what a day... there I was, looking forward to the Baldwin thinking
>it would be a nice easy one to tune... huh!)
>
>Brian Trout


Hi Brian,
You seem to have angered the Gods, must be falling behind on your chicken
sacrifices. I'd recommend "Cherches" for dinner tonight.

I once had this "tight pin" conversation with a past Baldwin Tech Service
Rep, and he told me that they carefully monitor pin torque at the factory,
and fix anything over 300"# before it goes out. Very reassuring.

I don't think you should make any attempt whatsoever to correct it. It's
not your problem. It probably prove to not be Baldwin's problem either, so
you can likely look forward to tuning it again. Cheer up though, in
November it will tune much more easily, and the high range torques will be
noticeably lower as the winter humidity drops. I don't know what the cycle
time is at the factory from the time a piano is strung, to the time it hits
the dealer's floor, but I suspect the block was drilled and strung at lower
humidity than what you're seeing locally right now. If you still have that
post on torques resulting from different pin sizes in different blocks,
look at it again and note that the Baldwin 49 ply block dropped 30-40"#
torque in three years, so by the time you've tuned it six or seven times,
you should be able to turn the pins with only one hand on the hammer. 

See? It ain't so bad.

Ron N