New, Improved Baldwins

[Christopher D. Purdy]

I am happy to hear some positive comments about the new Baldwin pianos.  I
too have seen some great improvements in the last few years.  We have a
loan program with Baldwin here at Ohio University and it has been
interesting to see changes in the new pianos each year.

I do, however, have some big problems.  For one, the tuning pin alignment
on the verticals is really bad in the third octave.  String alignment is
impossible with the way the strings weave through adjacent pins.

My main beef, though, is with the regulating of the grands we got this
year.  They were fine when they got here but over the Christmas break the
regulation went completely out the window.  It wasn't just little
adjustments due to felt impacting, they went way out.  I had to completely
re-regulate all four of our grands because they were unplayable.  Yes,
these are new pianos and they need to break in and yes, our humidity in
this building is too low but I have been working with new pianos,
especially new Baldwins, for years and I have never seen problems like
this.

Has anyone else experience this?  I would be interested in hearing from you
if so.

chris

-Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T.
-School of Music, Ohio University
-Athens, OH  45701
-mailto:purdy@ohio.edu
-(740) 593-1656 office
-(740) 593-1429 fax