Baldwin pedal saga continues

[Robin Blankenship]

Ric,
>From Virginia, actually, about 25 miles south of Richmond. Does the local 
accent come through that well?? "Southside" dialect, as it it called, has a 
hint, I'm told, of old England about it. I'm pure Virginian to my toes. 
Maybe to my fingers, too.

Michelle,
Your Baldwin owner has a rather different sense of what "mushy" means than 
would occur to me. For myself, the word "stiff" comes to mind sooner. I've 
noticed at times that the position my foot is in at the moment of initial 
damper lift makes a difference in perceived stiffness of the system. That is 
to say, as the leverage situation with the foot changes, so does the 
perception of effort required to depress the pedal. If the lift starts 
sooner, the pedal "feels" stiffer.

Is the player a large robutst adult male, a petite lady of a fair number of 
years, or some other easily identified demographic that might help explain 
the difficulty they are experiencing?

But, mainly, I would suspect the spring. Why it should be so beyond ordinary 
stiffness or strength is beyond me. Perhaps it was chosen to give the 
impression of this being a larger piano than it really is; i.e., a sales 
gimmick.

This will be an interesting thread, I do believe. LOL

Robin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RicB" <ricb at pianostemmer.no>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 6:03 PM
Subject: Baldwin pedal saga continues


> Grin... you dont happen to be from Texas now are you Robin ?  Sorry.. 
> couldnt resist.  Seriously tho... Robin makes an important point.  Make 
> sure you define.. as in find out exactly what the pianist is asking for. 
> Check all the basics and go from there.  If all the parts are secure, and 
> regulation is correct... then she's looking for something special and your 
> job is to identify what it is and how to find it.
>
> No doubt many good tips as to what exactly to look for will come in.
>
> Cheers
> RicB
>
>
>
>    What is YOUR feeling about how the pedal feels?? "Mushy" is such a
>    lovely descriptive terms. But, "mushy" just HOW?? Compared to what??
>
>    Robin Blankenship
>
>
>        Hi everyone.  I sure hope you can help with this issue.  I
>        e-mailed a couple of days ago but haven't heard any
>        suggestions.  The customer complaint (college piano professor,
>        home piano) is a "mushy" sustain pedal on a Baldwin grand.  I've
>        since found out that she's had TWO nationally known techs look
>        at it with no positive results.  And she thinks the newbie is
>        going to fix it?  =)   She's really pleased with my tunings
>        however so I want to try and help her.   Any suggestions? Thanks 
> very much in advance.
>
>        Michelle,
>
>