Ron: We have 3 of these newest Baldwins at SMU and they are indeed improved. The ribs are now morticed into the rim, and the "killer octave" is much improved. I've been impressed. dave *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 1/22/01 at 10:20 PM Ron Nossaman wrote: >In the vendor exhibition arena at Arlington, I talked briefly with the >Baldwin rep who told me about some planned changes in the product line. >Today I finally got to tune a new L, so I got a chance to look one over. >Looks like a rubbed out polyester finish, and has the three stick lid prop >- as promised. It also has a fancy new scripty and colorful soundboard >decal, also as promised, as well as a slow fall fallboard. What wasn't >promised was the fact that the tuning pin holes in the plate webbing were >drilled out to, near as I could measure, a fer sure full 7/16"! There >wasn't a single solitary pin in the whole piano leaning against the plate. >I was quite impressed. Why didn't he mention that? The pins were left a bit >high (coil bottoms 5mm - 7.5mm off the plate), but they were unusually >uniform in torque, and not a snap through a quarter semitone pitch raise >and tuning, though they were pretty tight. They were generally quite >controllable and comfortable. The strings were probably a little high on >the hitch pins at around 7mm, but the bearing throughout was just right by >my reckoning, the soundboard crown was positive, and the overall sound of >the piano was quite presentable if bright. Some general hammer softening >and voicing could produce a quite nice sounding piano out of this one. The >regulation is pretty ragged, but the piano has been in service since >August, so I don't know how it was on delivery. Since I don't recall ever >seeing a regulation improve under hard use, I assume it was better five >months ago. If this is step one in the new enhanced design and quality >control regimen, I certainly approve. I also hope they leave the nice >marketing enhancements and continue to improve on the performance and >quality control tolerances. These could easily be very nice instruments. > > >Ron N David M. Porritt dporritt@swbell.net Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275
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