[CAUT] Baldwin SD-10 questions

[Susan Kline]

At 10:25 AM 10/19/2006, Stan wrote:
>Secondly, those machined capo pieces appear to have a radius at the
>string contact point, quite a bit larger than other pianos.  I once
>treated the sizzling strings on this piano by tapping them sideways
>and back into position.  This nearly eliminated all noises but it
>didn't last long.  What are your feelings on grinding a smaller
>radius on these pieces or does case hardening preclude this?  The few
>times I have departed from a manufacturer's original design, it was
>only with great trepidation but a solid conviction that it was the
>only solution to the problem.

I wrote an article about some of this a few years ago - my experiences with
a Baldwin SD-10 (which still is doing fine, by the way.) It had already
been restrung, which improved the zingers, but they were starting up
again, and tuning stability was difficult, though I really whacked it,
which helped some.

In the first capo section (where the zingers were the worst) I slacked
off the wire completely, one note at a time, and I pulled the strings to
the side of the little channel in the - whatsis-fitting. Then I worked a
small strip of medium hardware cloth under the (large-radiused) bearing,
grit side up and I shoeshined for a short while. That took off 
whatever that finish is,
and left the metal mirror-shiny. I finished by pulling the wire out of
the grooves at the front of the duplex, and loading the grooves with graphite
from a 6B pencil, which improved the rendering tremendously. Put it all
back in place, pulled up the wire - zingers very, very much better, and
the longevity has been good. I liked it enough that I did the top section
as well, later on. Add in a little voicing to even things out and a really
heavy tuning, and it was a different, more pleasing animal. My article
talked about the idea that letting the wire off so far and then pulling it
back up meant that a small amount of wire had shifted around the hitch pin,
so that the wire pressed against the main bearing was fresh and unflattened.
I thought that this, and having fresh wire against the front bridge pin,
might have been part of the improvement. Since you have to let down one
side first, the other side pulls some wire around, and your chances
of pulling both sides alternately in just the right order that the wire ended
up exactly where it had started seemed to me to be pretty slim.

If you have a chance, and the budget, in your place I'd get rid of that
Baldwin grand pinblock, with all the little layers and the heat-set glue
lines ready to melt and glaze, in a New York minute. "Snapping-tight tuning
pins" - you ain't woofing. Sometimes they are so tight they can barely be
shifted, and then they snap. Other pianos (luckily not the SD-10 I work
on) lose torque, and still snap, while others are incredibly tight. I remember
somebody with a tight, snappy SD-10 pinblock who treated it with Protek,
to get rid of the jumpiness! And it worked, and still held pitch!!
If you have the chance, I truly believe you should move it on. Maybe,
as Del says, you can make a boat part from it ...

I really like our SD-10, by the way. Stands up to anything, you could
jump up and down on the bass and the deep bronze tone wouldn't break.
Real ivory keys, unchipped. A certain metal tang to the treble sound, but once
it's evenly voiced and well tuned, I really find that particular tone 
appealing.
Hope yours does as well as ours has.

Susan Kline
Newport Art Center
Newport, Oregon

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