Hi Wim and Arlie: With all due respect, I believe it is a mischaracterization to say as a general statement that Baldwins are notorious for weak trebles. That is simply not my experience as a piano technician for 35 years, and a Baldwin dealer for 7 of those. One can certainly accuse Baldwin of many other sins. In terms of volume and sustain, I would say that the Baldwin is at least as good as most pianos in the treble on average. So, I wouldn't want Arlie approaching the piano with the belief that the weak treble is innate to the make and have that color his expectations of the piano. I think it is too early to say that a weak treble is innate to this Baldwin. There are many potential causes for this weak treble including a horror show action rebuild with corn puff cheapo hammers, and often many solutions to dramatically improve it short of rebuilding. I think that the first thing I would want to say to Arlie is to simply make your mind blank and quiet, and approach the instrument without any expectations. And, as David Andersen will happily tell you, JUST LISTEN. If you play piano yourself, play some familiar songs that use a fair amount of treble. Or garner the hand of a player (or the minister), and have them play for you as you stand out a distance from the piano. Let whatever impressions come into your mind have their stay and write them down without judging them. After that point, I would ask the minister to talk about his impressions at some reasonable length, again just listening and write your notes down again. If he is a player, it will be helpful to have him play a bit and relay his impressions to you, particularly if there are certain areas of the piano that he feels are deficient. At that point, I would ask for some time alone with the piano to start doing my detective work. Reshaping a few test hammers are not a bad idea to see if you are past the too soft top layers of hammer felt. Removing the top treble cheek block, slide the action in and out in small increments to check for strike point issues. If the treble volume improves with the action being somewhere other than where it is set, adjust the cheek blocks to lock in the best position that you have found. Because the speaking lengths in the high treble of the piano are so short, small errors in strike point can have a large impact on the treble performance. All of the suggestions made by others so far are good ones. You can use them to make a written checklist along with anything else that comes to your mind. I am going to assume that your servicing of this piano means tuning it. This is a great opportunity to spend an hour or two of intimate time with this piano. I find this a really useful time to form impressions of the instrument as I go along. Let them pop into your head and write them down on your notepad. It probably would not be a bad idea to have the minister play the piano after the tuning so as to have removed any colorations on his impressions an out of tune piano might have, and being able to listen to an in tune piano yourself will make your detective work a bit easier. Bring a strong flashlight and inspect the soundboard. Check the bridges for splitting, the soundboard for cracking. If you have some kind of downbearing guage, check to see if there is any downbearing. Take a straight edge and crawl under the piano to check and see if there is positive crown between the ribs in several places. If there is no positive downbearing and/or crown, this will likely be some indication that there are board issues. To me, one of the most important tests I can use to compare hammer and board efficiency is the pluck test. Lift the damper and pluck the string with your fingernail or a guitar pick. Listen to how the string sounds. Is there a bit of rise in volume as it continues to sound? Or does it stay steady and strong for a while? If so, the board is healthy in that area. Or, does it sound kind of weak and lifeless? After listening to the pluck test on that note, immediately follow it by having the hammer strike the string. Go back and forth between plucking and striking. If the piano has more volume and sustain when you pluck, then the problem is in the hammers, for which filing and needling may be the solution. If the piano is weak on the pluck test, you will have limited success by working with the hammers. Do the pluck test every octave or so throughout the piano, and compare with the hammer strike. It is really important to do good detective work before you start hosing the hammers with the dope. Otherwise you may end up treating the symptoms and not the problem. Most of us have definite protocol we follow in voicing and this kind of detective work. Generally the juice bottle will come out when we have satisfied ourselves that other options for improvement have been met, or that the hammers are indeed simply too soft in the problem areas and hardening them is the answer. Last but not least, what is the room that the piano is in like? Is it very heavily carpeted and draped? Are there "dead spots" acoustically? Good luck to you, Arlie. Happy Thanksgiving to you and family. Likewise for you too, Wim. Will Truitt From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of wimblees at aol.com Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 7:30 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] More Volume Arlie Baldwin's are notorious for weak trebles. The first thing I would suggest is reshape the hammers. Remove several layers. Then, as has been suggested, make sure they are mated to the strings, etc. While the action is out, you should also seat the strings on the capo bar, tap the bridge pins, and seat the strings on the bridge. If all of this doesn't work, then you have a belly problem, and it's time to give the piano to Del and him work his "magic". Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician Mililani, Oahu, HI 808-349-2943 Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: Arlie Rauch <adarpub at midrivers.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:42 pm Subject: [pianotech] More Volume I will be servicing a 9 foot Baldwin grand next week at a church building. Previous music ministers used it as it was, but the new one would like more volume from the treble. It is weak-sounding in the treble. It's not a great piano, but it is big! It is generally in fine condition otherwise. I have been thinking about using some hammer hardener, but is that the answer? Any valuable and practical suggestions are welcome. Arlie Rauch _____ Tis the season to save your money! Get <http://toolbar.aol.com/holiday/download.html?ncid=emlweusdown00000008> the new AOL Holiday Toolbar for money saving offers and gift ideas. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20081127/9b5323f3/attachment-0001.html>
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