Dear Terry, I am not an expert, but I do work with a number of Wurlitzer pianos, new and used, and I have some ideas about what to do. >Hi List. I serviced a two-year-old Wurlitzer G153 yesterday. <snip> >My question is what constitutes a warranty claim. > >1) Certainly her two rattling bass strings should be replaced - parts and >labor covered - right? Broken strings and action parts are covered. Call Baldwin tech service and ask them to ship out two new strings. I don't know if the labor is covered. You will have to ask about this. As with any new string, it will go out of tune much more quickly than the rest of the piano. You will need to make several return visits to retune the new strings. I don't think these extra return visits are covered by warranty. >2) What about two bass notes where the partials are not even close. One is >unable to tune the bicord unisons beatless. Would that be covered by a >warranty? Talk to Baldwin and ask. You may find that after seating and leveling strings as described below, the tuning may be much clearer and the problem may go away. If necessary, the strings may need to be replaced and may be under warranty. >3) When you depress key A1, the dampers for A1 AND G#1 raise. I have not yet >taken the action out. I can see the cause of this ranging from minor (too >wide a key end felt) to majorish (key needs to be replaced because of warp >or bad alignment problem with damper flanges, etc.). Again, whether it be >minor or major, I generally charge for my services, and it seems to me this >should be a warranty item. Would this likely be covered by warranty (unless >of course, a small christmas ornament is found stuck in there!)? Before pursuing authorization for warranty repair from Baldwin for this, first remove the action and see what the problem is. There may be a foreign object wedged in between the two dampers or underlevers. The owner of the piano is responsible for tuning, regulation and voicing and regular maintenance. These things are not covered by warranty. Remember, the piano spent 1300 miles on its left side bouncing down the highway from Kansas to Florida. It is possible that you will find all of the action parts shifted to the left and need to be respaced correctly. It is possible that the action screws were never tightened, so you have loose screws, and you have gravity pulling all of the action parts and causing them to go out of alignment. This is standard procedure after a move. The customer should pay you to properly align all of the action parts and tighten all of the screws. The customer should also pay you at this time to correct any regulation problems caused either by neglect (2 years of no service in the home), heavy use, or poor or nonexistent dealer prep. It is most likely that the sticking dampers would NOT be covered by warranty repair. Why? It is likely that the action parts have shifted during the move. It is likely that the climate in Florida is much different from the climate in Kansas. The change in climate can cause all kinds of strange problems with pianos, including sticking keys, dampers and other action parts. It is the customers responsibility to maintain a proper environment in the home. Damage caused by poor climate is not covered by the warranty, in my opinion. If the indoor humidity is above 55% RH to 60% RH consistently, you will begin to see rust forming on the strings. This is not covered by warranty, in my opinion. Thecustomer needs to take proper steps to keep the piano in a good environment, whether this is done with a whole house humidifier and dehumifier, room humidifiers and dehumifiers, or a complete Dampp-Chaser humidity control system. I suggest that you install a G6PS-50-SHB complete Dampp-Chaser system in the piano. This will minimize changes in the climate, and minimize the potential for long-term damage to the piano. How many pianos have you seen that are rusting out prematurely in Florida? Now is your chance to do some long-term good for this piano, by preventing climate induced damage. What would be caused by warranty? If the key end felt is too wide, take a sharp knife and trim it to the proper size. If the key is warped, use steam and clamps and unwarp the key. But call Baldwin and explain the situation to them before doing repairs, to get authorization. >4) FALSE BEATS in tenor, treble, and hi treble GALORE! <snip> >I don't know if it has loose bridge pins or what - just that it sounds >terrible. >Would pathetic conditions like these be covered in some way under a >warranty. Terry, the first thing I would do is to tighten all of the plate bolts and screws. (WARNING: do not tighten the perimeter plate bolts on Baldwin pianos with the Accu-Just hitch pins. Also, never tighten the plate nose bolts). Then seat all of the coils on the tuning pins. This procedure was demonstrated at a PTG one-day seminar in St. Louis by Isaac Sadigursky. Don Rose also told me about this procedure, and you can ask me if you want to know more about it. After you have seated and leveled all of the coils on the tuning pins, the pitch will have dropped up to about a half step or more. At this time, also seat all of the strings at the hitch pin. (WARNING: Do not seat the strings at the hitch pin on Baldwin pianos with the Accu-Just hitch pins.) Now, do a pitch raise up to A-440. After the pitch is at A-440, take a hammer shank and a very small hammer, and LIGHTLY seat all of the strings on the bridge, at the bridge pins. Next remove the action, and rub the strings with a hammer shank at the point where they cross under the Capo bar in the top two sections. Now do another pitch raise. Next, use the Amazing new tool from Don Manino (order from Schaff piano supply) and level all the strings at the agraffes. You will also want to use the brass string level level sold by Joe Goss. Caution, you are not bending the wire to get the strings level, because this could damage the agraffe. You are gently massaging the wire to straighten out that small curve in the wire at the point where it contacts the agraffe or the capo bar. This will allow the string to have better contact with the agraffe, producing a clearer tone. This procedure was explained to me by Don Manino in a class on prepping new pianos. It was also explained by Paul Revenko Jones in a class on agraffes and string terminations. If you don't have clean string terminations, you can get false beats. By the way, none of this work seating the coils on the tuning pins, doing the pitch raise, seating the strings the hitch pin, bridge pins, agraffe or capo bar and front duplex, tuning, leveling strings and tuning again is covered under warranty. It will drastically improve the tuning and the clarity of the tone. Explain it to the customer, but they should pay for this, not Baldwin. When the piano was delivered to the dealer from the factory, it should have had a full prep before the piano was sold to the customer. It is possible that the piano you are describing did not get a full prep. Dealer prep is not covered by warranty. Tuning, regulation and voicing are not covered by warranty. The customer is responsible to maintain the piano properly. The warranty is to cover factory defects, broken parts, poor workmanship, etc. Baldwin will go out of their way to cover warranty problems, but make sure and call them and describe the situation to them. If there are loose bridge pins, I think that would certainly be covered by warranty. Call and ask. >5) Hammers falling off. Warranty? If the hammers are coming unglued, call Baldwin and talk to one of the techs there about the situation. It may be covered. But it doesn't take too long to pop the hammer head off, clean off the old glue, and reglue it in place. It is possible that a drastic change in climate between Kansas and Florida could cause loose glue joints. Describe what is going on and let Baldwin decide whether it is covered by warranty or not. >I don't work on many new pianos, so I don't know what is normally covered >under warranties. Is Roger out there??????? He has likely seen one of these! > >Terry Farrell >Piano Tuning & Service >Tampa, Florida >mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com Terry, I hope this is helpful. I only have seven years experience, but I hope that these ideas are helpful. I have enjoyed reading your posts, because you have a lot of insight. For warranty service on new Baldwin, Wurlitzer, and Chickering pianos contact Baldwin tech service and talk to Thomas Malone or Russell Schmidt. After talking with you and determining if it is a warranty repair, they will fax (or mail) a Warranty Repair Authorization form, which needs to be signed by you and the customer and mailed back to Baldwin with the bill. It is extra paperwork, but that keeps people from just mailing in bills to be paid without Baldwin having any idea of what is gong on. Baldwin maintains a complete technical service department at the factory in Trumann, Arkansas. They have a complete inventory of parts and ship out pretty quickly. If a piano has damage that is extensive, the technical services department has a complete repair department for doing case repair, and anything up to and including new soundboards and pinblocks is necessary. Baldwin Piano and Organ 900 Hwy 463 Trumann, AR 72472-9605 Thomas Malone or Russell Schmidt - Baldwin Warranty Service (877) 889-4805 For Baldwin ConcertMaster service and warranty questions, contact Steve Bryan. He will go out of your way to help with questions and technical support. I need to give Steve Bryan a big pat on the back. He recently went out of his way to ship me some items overnight in an emergency situation. Thanks Steve! Baldwin Piano and Organ Company 4680 Parkway Drive, Suite 200 Mason, Ohio 45040-5301 Steve Bryan - ConcertMaster (800) 876-2976 x 4601 fax (513) 754-4830 e-mail: steve.bryan@bpao.com I hope this info is helpful. Sincerely, David A. Vanderhoofven Registered Piano Technician Baldwin ConcertMaster installation and service Joplin, Missouri (In the interest of full disclosure, I have been to the Baldwin factory twice for training. In 1993 I attended the Technical Seminar taught by Kent Webb. In August 2000 I attended the ConcertMaster installation and servicing course. I tune Baldwin pianos for a local dealer, and I grew up playing an ebony Baldwin R. I am purely self-employed, and take no commissions from any dealer or manufacturer. I do however, earn a large portion of my income from tuning and servicing Baldwin, Chickering and Wurlitzer pianos.)
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