Snappy Baldwin blocks

[A440A@AOL.COM]

 >> All modern Baldwin Grands are known for their tight and cracking tuning 
>> pins.
>  Could it be that 50/50 glue and wood doesn't make the best pin block 
> material?
 

Greetings, 
    I don't think it is the glue,  I think it is the crude approach to 
production tolerances.  Baldwin doesn't want to have warranty problems with 
loose pins, so they make them so tight, with such a dense block, that 
looseness is not a problem.  This is, imho, a very thick-headed way to 
approach the issue.  There is absolutely no reason to pin a block for 175-200 
in/lbs, unless production tolerances cannot be trusted.  With their 
"composite" blocks, age doesn't seem to soften the torque, either. 
    I no longer accept Baldwins in my clientele for this reason,(arthitis in 
the wrist makes this a no-brainer) and I am fortunate enough to have more 
than I can do without them.  However, in the past, I did have reason to deal 
with one, and fuzzy unisons were not an acceptable answer. The response I 
tried was to remove the coils, back the pins all the way out, and then hammer 
them back in.  It brought the torque down from an average of 150 to about 
120!  They still wanted to jump around some, though. 
     Anybody can pin a pinblock so that it will always be tight, but a more 
artistic and craftsmanlike approach is to pin it so that it will always be 
adequately tight, and also easy to tune.  
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT