<HTML>In a message dated 12/23/00 8:35:48 AM Central Standard Time, sec@overspianos.com.au (Ron Overs) writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">All modern Baldwin Grands are known for their tight and cracking tuning pins.</BLOCKQUOTE> Could it be that 50/50 glue and wood doesn't make the best pin block material? </BLOCKQUOTE> Frankly, I'm not the one to ask for an opinion about fundamental manufacturing concerns.  Del, Ron N. and Newton are much more knowledgeable than I would be.  I have, however, always heard that the condition that is the topic here is due to the "glue" that they use.  As for whether this is "best" or not, one thing you can count on is that a manufacturer will never admit publicly that there is any inherent defect in their design or process.   The implication being of course, that the defect is in YOU!  (Just take the Steinway vertical controversy as another good example of this). I have, of course, experienced this condition many times and I just accept it as one of the challenges that normally fall within the range of what I have to do.  It takes more effort and those pianos take a little longer to get into tune, that's all.  I've never found one that I just could not handle. One other thing that might be considered is that these pianos with very tight tuning pins will probably hold up for a lifetime the way we expect them to.   Recently, there was the question about Old Uprights and whether some of them might still have some redeeming value.  One day this week, my last tuning, the 6th appointment of the day at 6 o'clock in a snowstorm was a real dog.   Some loose pins that I had to tap just to get them to hold.  I told the young lady that this piano was not worth putting any money into.  Boy, did I really just want to be *done* with that one! Another day, my first appointment was with a nearly 100 year old Weber with beautiful mahogany veneer and tuning pins in the open faced pinblock that seemed to have as much torque as you might expect from a brand new piano.   Although it had that old upright sound, it was still pretty good and it was that family's piano and the lady really loves it.  I told her my favorable opinion of it and because I had been there a couple of times before, she told me I was the best piano tuner she had ever had because I was the only one who tuned her piano to Standard Pitch and who actually thought it was a good piano.  (She also added that there was *something* about the way I tuned that made her piano sound better than all of the others).  (I said "thank you" and absolutely *nothing* about anything called EBVT). One additional comment about the feel that this "glue" gives the pinblock, it is much like the feel you get when you treat a pinblock with CA glue.  The glue fix is preferable to loose, uncontrollable tuning pins, of course and we just accept the slightly jumpy, cracking feel that the glue gives it as a compromise.  I'm sure that Baldwin has a good reason for doing what they do.   Only time will tell how well these pianos hold up and if they get better feeling with time.  I'll bet no one has encountered a new Baldwin Grand that quickly developed loose tuning pins the way some other piano brands are known to do (and which often must be fixed with CA glue, Epoxy or a different pinblock with a lot more "glue" in it). Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin</HTML>