Hi Alan, I will be the last one to defend a company that was so badly mismanaged. Your points are well taken, and I wasn't even thinking of the uprights. No, not even the Artist series grands look like finely polished pieces of art. They did however come up with the vertical hitch pins, which I do like. True, they look crude, being standard low cost parts, but the concept has advantages acoustically and in production - if the production line had only done what they were told to do. Others like Del have gone through the trouble to get nice looking parts that don't rust (and his design is actually different). On the SF10, you will see a bass bridge without an apron. They actually were willing to forgo the extra speaking length in favor of a better design. Marketing fluff was not design rule No. 1! The rims were made of some pretty dense wood. The loudness was not at the expense of sustain - better built Baldwins had both. I also like the perimeter bolts with the adjustable plate height feature. There again, the production line may not have always done what was intended. Most of this work seems to go back to the the 1960s though, and I have the feeling that a number of engineers left Baldwin feeling exhausted from battles with management. I agree though, things that make you appreciate the effort put into hardware, finish, and nice workmanship, there is no shortage of manufacturers who put more money into it. Best regards, Vladan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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