<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: Baldwin</title></head><body> <div>At 11:07 AM -0400 10/15/04, lgulli2586 wrote:</div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">I need some help or suggestions. For the past few years I have been tuning a Hamilton Baldwin 125th anniversary piano in a church in Southern Ontario Canada. Its 48 inches. I go for Easter Christmas etc. It is the most unstable rascal I have ever dealt with. Budget restrictions forbid a Damp-Chaser, even though I explained long term benefits in stability and savings. They wondered about other pianos of this type and thought it might be the piano. I even offered to let them get another tuner and see if it makes a differance. Maybe I am missing something.....any input or ideas, gratefully received.</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Dear Richard,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Aside from extreme environment circumstances, every once in a while there comes a piano that belies description when it comes to staying in tune. I have one such piano as you describe located in a church where I have been allowed to tune it once a year for the last 20 + years. It also happens to be a Baldwin Hamilton, '70s' era.</div> <div><br></div> <div>What I eventually discovered was this particular Hamilton required an absolute rendering of the strings and setting of the pins to achieve any sense of stability, something not readily achieved in one visit. It was extremely stubborn and resistant.</div> <div><br></div> <div>In the beginning I was always returning the piano to A440 and walking away feeling I'd done an excellent job. Each following year on the next tuning I discovered a piano where the unisons were way out of tune, beyond reason so to speak.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Since the environment was well within reason, I had to examine my own abilities more closely.</div> <div><br></div> <div>So I started float the pitch some and only address the most obvious corrections in the tuning. Over the years now I don't mess with changing the entire piano's pitch location, but rather correct the notes that I somehow wasn't able to render and set.</div> <div><br></div> <div>The piano now sounds far more reasonable overall when I arrive for the next tuning.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Sincerely,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Keith</div> <div><br></div> <div> </div> <x-sigsep><pre>-- </pre></x-sigsep> <div>Keith McGavern<br> Registered Piano Technician<br> Oklahoma Chapter 731<br> Piano Technicians Guild<br> USA<br> </div> </body> </html>