What can you do with a 26 year old 9' Baldwin that has a bad pinblock, junky sound, poor treble sustain and worn brick bat hammers? The answer for me was to carefully craft a rebuild and design improvement proposal for this customer so I could take it to Ron Nossaman. Last week I went to Wichita and picked it up with the newly designed rib, soundboard and bridges. In our shop we will refinish it and put new action parts on. The action will be balanced from A0 to C8. Listening to it even with the old hammers, that Ron had to steam down quite a bit just to be able to get some idea of the sound, is a very interesting experience. The trichords are gone; low tenor has wound strings going to a transition bridge; board has 22 variously radiused, laminated ribs instead of 18; greatly increased cutoff area and fish; brass weights for particular areas under the long bridge; heavy brass bar across upper treble at front edge of sb.; Conklin front duplex changed; and more... This instrument has a great sound even with the old hammers on. The bass absolutely kicks; the tenor smoothly transitions between bass and plain strings; the treble is very clean now with good sustain. I am very pleased with the sound. It will do a great job of filling a 1150 seat sanctuary. Last night my son played a Prokofiev Sonata on it down in the shop. He was thoroughly taken with it and wished he could do his upcoming senior recital on it instead of on the brand new piano that is in their new recital hall. Maybe I'll record something you can listen to after it is finished. I plan to install the Ronsen VSG (VFG) hammers. More info will be forthcoming after their on. This makes so much sense considering the results and the money spent. A happy camper, Bob E. Hull ____________________________________________________________________________________ It's here! Your new message! Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/
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