Years ago in downtown Boston there was a local high end furniture store that housed a mini Baldwin store inside it. Aside from the perennial "Arthur Fiedler's personal piano" (Baldwin sent one or more over to him every year, he scrawled his name on its plate, and suddenly it was priceless, but available at a very special price ...) on display/for sale, and several other "normal" models on site, the store offered the option of having a custom case suggested/designed by their interior decorator/furniture craftsmen. I've seen several of these "winners." Odd pine cases that would puzzle this young tech -- "How the heck do I get into this thing??!" After a while I'd figure it out, but it was damned inconvenient. I haven't seen one in a long time. Perhaps something like this was going on with your customer's beauty. Patrick On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>wrote: > I did some tuning, etc. on a 1959 (from serial number) Wurlitzer console > today. First thing I noticed about it was the amateur back porch refinishing > job on the case - I mean the brushed on quality type (and not using > brushable clear finish!) - the finish was not old-looking - looked like it > might be 20 or so years old - sure didn't look like a 51 year old finish. No > big deal with that, of course. Open the lid - or try to - oh, okay, I > finally got it - the lid was constructed a little bit unusual (strip of wood > on the front bottom edge - like the music desk piece wasn't tall enough). > Well, okay, Wurlies can be weird. Remove music desk and bottom board. Looks > really strange inside - ah, there is no finish on any of the interior wood - > zilch, nada. Lookin' at the "refinishing job" and it clearly appears that > this is the original finish. There is absolutely no trace of original > factory-type finish. And parts/surfaces/edges that always get > factory-finished on all pianos have no finish at all. And there is > absolutely zero trace of any stripping activity. And believe me, who ever > did this amateur case finishing had no knowledge of how to remove a finish > and leave no trace. > > The case construction - the way the music desk is screwed in, the pedal box > for the three foot pedals, the bottom board, the matching bench - everything > is 1920s style - clearly not 1959. By 1920s style, I mean big wooden blocks > used to hold things together. The bench legs have like no hardware - the > bench sides a solid 2x2" hardwood, with a huge hardwood triangle in each > corner with big screws holding things together - again, like you'd see on an > old upright, not a 1959 Wurly console. Heck, I didn't remove the bench legs, > but they probably had wooden threads! (Just kidding....) > > The top lid is about a half-inch short of the length of the case - so on > each end of the top, you can see the top edge of the case sides - the edge > of the outer oak veneer and the inner hardwood core. There is no Wurlitzer > decal on the fallboard (although the fallboard did have the typical Wurly > slide mechanism!). The sides of the keybed - usually they are sculpted in > some way on the front top corner - these are almost squared off (looks real > strange - like the ends of a square grand keyboard). > > IMHO, there is no way (zero chance) the finish on this case was applied in > any factory in Decalb or any other Wurlitzer factory. And I'm 98% sure that > the case was not built in any Wurlitzer factory. The only thing I can think > of is that someone, maybe in the 1980s or 70s, got hold of an unused 1959 > Wurly console strung back/board/plate assembly - and maybe a keybed - oh, > and the fallboard mechanism that had been sitting around in some closet or > lonely corner under a pile of whatever or up in the factory attic - somehow > the assembly was built, but then it somehow fell off or was yanked from the > normal production line (maybe an employee got drunk, swiped it off the line, > hid it good somewhere in the factory, and then forgot the next day!). > Anyway, someone - maybe an employee at the factory somehow got hold of this > strung back assembly and finished it off 20 or 30 0r 40 years ago in his > garage (or back porch). > > That's all I can come up with. Anyone else have a theory? I will be > returning to the piano in a few days - maybe late this week - anyone find > this mystery interesting enough to want to see pictures???? > > Upon initial inspection of this thing I'm sure I stared at this beast for > at least ten minutes uttering quiet little WTFs to myself........ > > Terry Farrell > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100322/29149190/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC