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<DIV>
<DIV>Albert,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What you're hearing, in all likelihood, is Corfam, the material used to=
cover the hammer butts. Baldwins of a certain vintage are notorious fo=
r
the knocking sounds created by the action.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>They can all be replaced, of course, but it takes many hours according =
to
those who have done it. I'm sure others will chime in here.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dave Stahl</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 11/10/2005 5:54:40 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
phil@philbondi.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><=
FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Situation: Occasionally I find an extraordinarily noi=
sy
Baldwin/studio<BR>action.........sounds as though every shank-to-hammer gl=
ue
bond is<BR>broken, every hammer flange is loose,
etc.........<BR>To briefly describe it using a recent occurrence instead o=
f
a<BR>longwinded generic summary : a recent customer so far out of to=
wn
that<BR>the time zone included mention of the last century; it=
is
the last<BR>piano on that time-warp tour, and running far into after-dark
hours<BR>"right smack" in the greatroom of the jolly and noisy family,
I<BR>encounter the bizarre noisemaker ("of course they have never noticed
it,<BR>God bless 'em indeed though, great locally-successful people trying=
to<BR>feed me supper, cookies and sodas") The basic "harp" of the
approx.- 35<BR>year old Hamilton was very good, but the action parts were =
odd
in that<BR>the shanks were spinet-diameter; all hammer flanges were
loose but I<BR>tightened them; not one single shank-to-hammer glue j=
oint
was broken<BR>although most glue joints were obviously on the short side
of<BR>quality-control; there was a functioning DamppChaser dehumidif=
ier
with<BR>No Humidistat (they are adamant to have that corrected, they=
understood<BR>the explanation perfectly.........the first such explanation=
they had<BR>ever received) etc. but......<BR> the bottom
line, more than 50 % of noise remained after repairing<BR>one =
jack
stirrup brokengluejoint , tightening all hammer flanges,
and<BR>...........however having to tune and leave in some hurry without
a<BR>total research of the rest of the action..........my fault and
time<BR>fault.........<BR> any
suggestions? happens rarely enough that I have failed to<BR>do=
follow-up research during several occurrences over so many<BR>years.......=
..I
need a tightly-focussed suggestion if possible, since<BR>it is easie=
r to
find every problem in an institutional piano serviced<BR>often, but easy f=
or
me to forget to research the outlying time-pressure<BR>pianos seen only on=
ce
or twice in a lifetime............<BR><BR>Albert Thomas, Associate
Member PTG, Bach. Mus. and Med., Master of<BR>Music Piano
Performance<BR>Auburn University<BR>Albert Thomas Piano Service, Aub=
urn,
Alabama; Compton, Arkansas<BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
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