Baldwin Hamilton school problem

[Ron Koval]

Hi everyone

I ran into a problem with a 2 yr old Baldwin Hamilton upright at a high 
school recently.  This has been talked about on the cybertuner list this 
week, but wanted to bring this to a larger group.

The problem was expressed by the band director- the octaves sound bad.  
(some more than others)  I went, and met Kent Webb there and verified 
that the octaves checked out fine.  Kent suggested mating the hammers to 
the strings to clean up the phasing- that helped some.

What I found working with the director and Reyburn Cybertuner was that 
in addition to a negative inharmonicity problem just below the break, 
some notes above the break attack sharp (sorry didn't measure how 
sharp)and then settle to pitch.  The director is very sensitive to the 
initial pitch, and since he uses this piano primarily for teaching 
intervals, wants a recommendation on what other pianos are out there 
appropriate for institutional work that display less of this effect.

Is this due to higher or lower tension strings in this area?  If the 
effect of the attack was the same accross the scale, it wouldn't be a 
problem, but there was a big enough varience between octaves to be 
noticable.

He will be purchasing more pianos for a growing district - spends 
between $3000-$4000 on each.  Anything else out there that might solve 
this quest? (Yamaha, Kawai, etc..)

Thanks 

Ron Koval
Chicagoland

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