Itty Bitty Baldwin

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: March 28, 2001 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: Itty Bitty Baldwin


> >Only one thing has been
> >consistent -- on every one I've seen, the plate has been stressed much
> >higher that I would have thought possible.
>
> Same here, around 10mm. The plate in this one looked like almost 15mm
> thick. Maybe it was just a trick of perspective - small pianos are closer
> than they appear, and like that, but the plate looked quite able to take
> the abuse.

Perhaps. But one of the problems that showed up with this piano was tuning
instability. I've been told by several folks within the company that I was
criticized rather a lot for the plate design of this piano. The fact that I
did not design the cross-sections of the production plate was (is?),
apparently, of no consequence. I was no longer around and so, by definition,
fair game.

I have thought from the first production pianos I saw that allowing the
strings to ride so high on the hitches was asking for trouble and probably
had as much to do with the piano's instability as anything else. It also
invites broken plates as the added stress this practice places on any plate
is substantial. I also thought this sort of thing should have been both
obvious and easily preventable with even the most cursory attempt at quality
control and consistency of manufacturing.

Regards,

Del