Mason & Hamlin scale design

[Farrell]

I regularly service a turn-of-the-century Baldwin R for a local woman.
Original soundboard and bridges. Restrung, pinblock, dampers, & I put a set
of Abel hammers and shanks on it and refurbished the rest of the termite
eaten action. TOTALLY FABULOUS PIANO. One of my favorites by far. I love
tuning this piano and I love listening to her play it. It's tone is
exquisite - especially the treble & bass - so clear, great sustain, great
power, not mushy. Don't know exactly what year it was made because the
number is gone. This one also has the number on the keyframe - I don't think
that is the serial number.

Why would your strings break? Who knows. They were old. I'm sure you will do
fine with the one's you ordered.

Is this a waste of time? How do you mean? Is the piano worth it? I dunno, is
it? I know it has potential (believe me, it HAS potential), but that may
require rebuilding.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Ilvedson" <ilvey@jps.net>
To: "pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 12:44 PM
Subject: Re: Mason & Hamlin scale design


> Alright, I've got a question.  Baldwin grand, about 5' 7" (didn't actually
measure), poorly "restored", plate serial and model numbers covered when
refinished.  Fallboard folds into itself ala old Chickerings, which I
thought was unusual for a Baldwin, front of keyframe has 4 numbers
embossed...9507.  Pierce says between 1895 and 1900?  I couldn't find any
other #.  I brought this piano up from -40 and everything was fine except
the 6 tenor wound strings were 2 whole steps flat.  I brought up the first
and bang.  I tried another and bang.  Decided to replace all six strings.
The windings didn't look particularly well lined up so I'm not sure I want
to use them as samples.  Why would they break?  I called Baldwin and with
the info I gave:  10 single string unisons, 16 double string unisons in the
bass & 3 double string unisons in the tenor, the technician said it matched
the R scale.  I went ahead and ordered tenor duplicates as per that scale.
Is this a waste of time?  I c!
> ou!
> ld go back and measure from hitch pin to winding etc. but that means an
extra trip....
>
> David I.
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 2/28/01 at 11:56 AM Conrad Hoffsommer wrote:
>
> >At 07:41 02/28/2001 -0800, you wrote:
> >>Mic the strings before you destring next time...
> >>
> >>David I.
> >
> >
> >
> >Easy on him, Dave, he's just had a learning experience.
> >
> >Oh, for the days of learning experiences instead of senior moments...
> >
> >The rescaling idea isn't a bad one though.  I redid a 6'4" Chickering
> >once,
> >dutifully measured the scale, and ran those numbers through a rescaling
> >program.  WOW! It was horrible!
> >
> >I worked out a new scale.  Then, upon cleaning the plate, I uncovered the
> >factory numbers. Nowhere close to how I had found it strung.  Hmmmm.
> >
> >Don't trust what you find with your micrometer to be what you need.
> >
> >
> >
> >Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician -mailto:hoffsoco@luther.edu
> >Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
> >Voice-(319)-387-1204  //  Fax (319)-387-1076(Dept.office)
> >
> >Education is the best defense against the media.
>
>
>