Ribless Baldwin Hamilton

[Tom Driscoll]

Chuck,
    I've never seen  one that bad, but some of the most catastrophic structural failures that I've seen have been pianos in nursing homes.
    Here in New England ( Home Of The World Champion Boston Red Sox ) the residents require the heat to be turned on in September and it goes full blast through the spring.
    The relative humidity is lower than my hygrometer will measure and stays that way .No acoustic piano will last very long in that kind of environment .There might have been a problem at the factory when this thing was made but I'm betting the humidity condition was the biggest factor  .  We want pictures !
    Tom Driscoll
    
    
Subject: Ribless Baldwin Hamilton


    I had to share this one, it was interesting.  When I arrived at my second appointment today at a retirement home I was shown to the piano.  It was a Hamilton like soooo many others, and I generally like them.  I carved out the damper pedal lever where it rubbed the plate, and starting listening.  The bass was rattling the soundboard like crazy, and I wondered how I had missed the light poking through the gaps.  Nope.  No caverns or big splits.  It was the ribs piled up in the back.  There were two left partially attached to the soundboard, the rest were held in by the backposts and were as free as my advice.  


    Well, I'll let you guess how this beast sounded.  Really it wasn't as bad as I would have expected considering.   The splitting and curling treble bridge didn't help either, in fact it made the treble almost completely dead.  The funny thing is that the action was pretty ok, the bass bridge was solid (I had noted this first)  and pin torque was even and tight.  Thumper isn't just a bunny.

    chuckbeck

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