<HTML>In a message dated 7/25/2003 3:15:45 PM Eastern Daylig= ht Time, kennyfin@jetstream.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT= : 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">I have a piano, donated to our = little white church in the village, the name on the decal is VOSE &Sons.= It was made in the 70's by Aeolian, Tennesee. A drop action. I think the ca= binet design was very well thought out. Other than that, it won't hold it's = tune, and it's terrible.   I remember when I worked for= the music store, we shipped in a whole truckload of these inexpensive piano= s, the driver came directly from there to here, thousands of miles, from Ten= nesee to BC. In the early 80's, they were sold for about $1,200.00. <= FONT COLOR="#000000" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 FAMILY= ="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">   It won't hold it's tune, and= I can't figure out why. Looking down from the top with the lid open, the pi= n block seems very good material, twelve ply heart and second growth.=   Because it is the Church, I = figured, well, I'll give them a break and do something nice for them. I repi= nned the whole thing, for a fraction of the cost.   The pins feel pretty good. I= t still won't hold it's tune. What's wrong? Should I have gone two sizes lar= ger to #4? The pressure bar is solid, and seems the right angle. What else?<= /FONT>   All the screws are tight, ot= herwise it seems a normal piano. Has anyone else experienced = similar problems?   Kenny Finlayson, RPT<= FONT COLOR="#000000" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 FAMILY= ="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"> </BLOCKQUOTE> I recently have seen 3 pianos (all Baldwins...) that 'would not hold a tune'= . In 2 cases I had to glue the pin block to the frame because the original g= lue had failed. In the 3rd case one of the plate struts (between the treble = break) was broken and the more I tightened the strings the more the crack op= ened up and the plate bent. That customer has a new piano! Having also had some major flooding in our area about 30 years ago I see the= occaisional piano that the bottom of the frame is rotting away and it won't= stay in tune. In all cases the culpret seems to be flexing/deformation of t= he plate. Hope this helps! will wickham</HTML>