> I know Ecsaine comes in black. Does it come in red, too? I have a 1981 > Baldwin Hamilton that I want to sell. I've been warned that Baldwins of > this vintage used Ecsaine, and although the backchecks and hammer butts > are covered in something that is roughly the color of buckskin (it's a > bit redder than most buckskin...) it's very smooth, and I suspect it may > actually be Ecsaine. > > The piano is checking and playing fine, so it's not a problem I need to > address, I don't think, but just for my own enlightenment, could this be > Ecsaine? What, again? It may be Ecsaine, but it's nothing to be warned about if it is. Ecsaine is the currently used "good stuff" that eventually replaced most all of the other problematic artificial buckskin attempts. Baldwin used a black stuff that left sticky dust all over the inside of the piano, and a gray substance of some sort. I don't know what either stuff is, but both are nasty. Corfam (tan) was used successfully for a while, until the manufacturer changed the formula without bothering to notify Baldwin, and left thousands of pianos with quickly petrifying butt and catcher "leathers". I've not seen anything original in Baldwins that I'd call red. Ecsaine is sold in the US as Ultrasuede, in Europe as Alcantara, and in Asia as Ecsaine. It is the fix, rather than the problem. Your Baldwin may have already had the originally installed junk replaced, or Baldwin may have switched to Ecsaine by then. I don't know the date they made the switch. Ron N
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC