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Baldwin Hamilton Studio upright- [url=http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/msg/4672822052.html]craiglist ad[/url] This will be the best piano I've had- the last Kimble spinet was completely under the 4 feet of water inside back in '08 in Indiana- pianos are NOT creatures of the deep! :grin: I was going to sell it soon then for fear it was going to fall through the floor. This floor's a little stronger- I hope. So I've been playing my keyboard- almost was going to go digital, until I saw some of these played on youtube. I can't wait!

]http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/msg/4672822052.html maybe this link will work- seems I can't edit.

THe space is all cleared- and everythings out of the way....

I think the links are working now:
http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/msg/4672822052.html

If it all goes well, I'll be playing it by this time tomorrow. Excited!

Congratulations. More than a few PW members have spent some time in front of one of those.

Congratulations! I hope it brings you lots of pleasure.

Enjoy! Is it there yet? Is it? Huh? Is it?

Cheers!

Opps! Delayed another day- but raining here all day and a good drive from Augustine-

Went down there and saw it saturday though- and raining then too.

One more night of playing the casio keyboard.

YAY!

Piano delivered today-

pretty excited- playing it some, tired otherwise.
The serial number seems to indicate it's circa 1980-
I was guessing mid-70's
it's in pretty good tune and nice otherwise -

What sold the deal for me was when I looked at the hammers-
Hardly marked or creased at all!
in fact I've never seen an older piano with such uncreased hammers-
and soft like new

Found an aftermarket heating rod of some type installed n the lower quarters- like someone who owned it had particular concern for it


but I've also found one annoying problem I'm hoping to correct

and sorta blows my mind- maybe somebody can give me some advice:

To explain, Here's an email I sent to the people I bought it from:

Hi R2D2-
I hope you'll show this to 1138 too, (not real names!)

and I need some advice about a slight problem I've noticed with the piano, at least.
I quickly noticed that the E key above middle C was rather dead- compared to the others-
so far that's my only complaint, and I've played with it for awhile and polished it up, etc.
It takes much more pressure to get the same volume as the other keys
It is compounded by my having broken the two outer fingers on my left hand 35 years ago in a bicycle crash- so that they are both just a little weaker than normal,
and the E key there comes up a lot under them- requiring more force than the other keys to get as much volume, and from my weaker fingers
I looked into the problem, and actually got it about halfway cured-
before running into a wall of not wanting to go any further for now-
I can see EXACTLY what the problem is-
but hesitant to go further with it for now-
at first I looked at it and noticed right off that the little set adjusting screw out from the key wood itself-
right under the hammer action assembly- was noticibly higher than the rest-
I managed to level that little screw and hoped that would cure it-
it helped some-
but I noticed that the hammer was not moving as quickly toward the strings on the E still
that led me to finally see that the hammer fulcrum itself is riding slightly higher than all the other hammer fulcrums- the top being about a milimeter higher than all the other keys-
and I can see a gap between the bottom of it and the small squared off dowell under it-
that begins to first move it toward the strings- even before the green felt piece strikes it more firmly-
It's a gap that appears ONLY under that hammer fulcrum
The hammer itself is noticibly higher than the rest by the same amount

I also then see that there is a SET screw that holds the fulcrum PIVOT POINT in place buried way back under the fulcrum-
I even carefully got the screw loose, and the fulcrum lowered just the tiniest bit-
before the verticle wood piece the screw is holding in place finally BOTTOMS OUT on a horizontal piece of wood below it-
So the fulcrum pivot lowered itself the tiniest fraction, but is stil higher than those of the other keys- and the E is still unresponsive and must be struck much harder to get the same volume-
though not as bad as it was-
apparently- the bottom of the wooden plate with the screw through it-
that holds the fulcrum pivot in place needs a tiny bit shaved off the bottom so it will go lower - only about a milimeter at most
I don't know if it, or the hammer may have been replaced at some point- but may perhaps seem to have been.
So at this point it is more than turning a screw and moving the plate under the fulcrum- it would entail taking the plate off and shaving the bottom just a milimeter to lower it-
and I'm not sure what that would entail-
Can that piece be removed without removing the whole rack?
I did that a long time ago once with a really beat up piano- but hesitant to do that now on this nice piano- I'm not really a technician- and I don't want to mess up something else.
or do you think that pice can be extracted from the front?
I'm also wondering about the availability of parts before any more efforts beyond the point I got-
I know Baldwin went out of business- are parts still available otherwise, if theres any other problem?
Can you give me help or advice with this?
The piano plays great otherwise- and if it were in another place near the ends of the keyboard- I might not be so concerned with it-
but it is penciled on the hammer as key #44, so I'd like to get it working smoothly if possible.-
I thought I'd send an email first, and then probably call soon- but if you can respond here of give me a good time to call for advice, I'd be appreciative.
Thanks

p.s. I enjoyed our "jam session"
END e mail

And so I'm stymied that this particular problem may even a manufacturing defect left unresolved for 35 years or so- the closer I looked at all the assembly, the more it appeared original and not replaced- theefore the hammer fulcrum HAS ALWAYS been high- theres no way to adjust it lower without filing a mm off the bottom of the wooden set screw plate. It's so simple looking, and bound to solve the problem- but then again- so buried inside the guts of the intricate and fragile pieces around it.

I'm at a loss what to do right now- and haven't gotten a response or talked to the seller yet- who otherwise delivered a good piano in good tune.

Harpon :

Congratulations on the new-to-you piano!

You are going to have to have the piano tuned once it settles into your home environment. At that time have the tuner/tech look at the problem; it's undoubtedly easy to solve. Don't try to solve it yourself unless you know what you are doing.

Regards,

I'd agree - play it for 6-8 weeks, then have a technician tune it - it could well be a minor adjustment which the tech can solve as part of the tune. You might note some other minor adjustments in the meantime too as you get used to it.

Well like I said- I know EXACTLY what's wrong with it-
so I'm going to try to get some resolution on it quickly.

and apparently, it's probably had the same problem all its life
unless some inept technician changed something somewhere along the way

It doesn't appear so,
yet there are six hammers marked with an X on the top, and it's one of them-
there are no more problems apparent- but this one really makes a big difference-
and I have to have it resolved

Having tuned and repaired pianos for many years, I find it difficult to understand what you think the problem is, because there is standard nomenclature for action parts and you are not using it.

Examine this diagram and try explaining it again, using the standard names for the parts.

Congratulations!!! I am sure these problems can be resolved

The fulcrum point that the hammer rests on is slightly higher than the others, making the hammer higher, and leaving a gap at the bottom of the hammer between its' rounded part and a wooden dowel that first moves it towards the strings before the felted striker makes the major contact that pushes it against the strings.

there is a verticle set screw below the hammer that adjusts the fulcrum pivot point up and down- I loosened that and it barely went downward before the bottom of the wooden plate contacted other wood piece- that set screw plate needs to be filed down a mm or so to lower it even with the rest of the pivots and hammers-

it's key #44, right in the middle, and looks like it may have been this way since new

so I wonder why it's never been dealt with

You still have not used any of the standard nomenclature. Look at the diagram that I linked to.

My hammer butt doesn't look like that somehow,

but more pivots across a saddle that has a set screw on a plate under it for adjustment or just holding in place. that saddle is a mm higher than those under the hammer butt around it-

leaving a visible gap of a mm between the jack and the hammer butt, that's not present under the other keys. It doesn't sound like much, but the key is then halfway pressed until the jack begins to lift the hammer, requiring more force, or a less volumous note sounded.

It's easy to get the screw loose, and not sure if the drilling through the wood is elongated, but it seemed to adjust slightly downward until it came in contact with wood below it- that's all the wooden plate and the pivot saddle can be lowered

a mm filed off the bottom of the thin plate- under the pivot saddle the hammer butt rides on, would cure it, and perhaps the slot or hole for the screw would need lengthening.

The wooden plate in fact does appear slightly longer than the others, yet very similar in hue- like it's probably the original one- and so probably there since manufacture-

may explain the pristine hammer heads! Someone had an annoying piano.

if theres any way to adjust around it I may find it- The capstan screw had been turned higher than the others to compensate I think, but doesn't really affect it.
the head of the hammer is noticibly a mm higher than the others
Its all way back begind other parts

the other possibility is simply to build up the top of the wooden jack with some carefully placed glue- though correcting the plate dimension to match the rest would be best


Tired and busy today, I'll look at it all again later Haven't talked to the seller/technician yet either.

Plays great otherwise. Be a perfect piano if I can get this one action issue resolved.

I seem to possibly be getting good result building up some glue at the top of the wooden jack- I can get it on easily a coat at a time with a paint brush, and jiggle it to make sure it won't stick to the felt at the back-

I'm waiting for it to dry thoroughly now- but a quick test after it had set seems to indicate that the hammer is beginning to move almost immediately with pressure on the key- like all the others

the capstan screw at the bottom was still a little high- and so still turning it in with only a pair of pliars because I don't yet have a small spanner to fit-

while it aligned the parts better with the others, the key went further down before engaging the hammer- and yet somehow was getting a better velocity on the key-

that's when I started building up a glue top on the jack- and the initial test seems like the problem may be largely solved. I can always add more if I need-

The hammer head being a mm higher is of little concern.

the other alternative looked to be taking the entire rack off- then I could get the set screw off and take the wooden plate off from the back I think with some needle nose pliers- and get it back on, and the set screw wouldn't be falling into the piano if I missed there.

and also then putting a lot at risk, with all the parts on the rack
- if the glue solves it I won't go there for now

I known, maybe too little information, but is this the same type of piano? Piano is before 1980
http://www.2dehands.be/muziek/muzie...opie&utm_term=0&utm_medium=email
I want to switch to an acoustic instrument from my Yamaha YDP161 digital, and as i read here and there, you can't go wrong with a Baldwin.

It's a 1980-

I tracked down the serial numbers- they are listed under Hamilton- and really incorrectly I think- and got the first numbers for 1980 and 1982-

by extrapolation, mine was probably made in late spring of 1980-

It is similar to you picture, but a little different-
the name on the front- mine's "baldwin" in gold and not a plate, but says Hamilton on a plate on the right side of piano,

and down around the bottom are different- mine has legs attached alos by horizontal pieces from the body on large casters.

The number on "my" Baldwin is 1.085616