Joe, this is one of those "stealth" pianos that you referenced. Action parts painted or dyed black with blue felt everywhere in the action and even blue escaine on the hammer butts and catchers. Early on, the damper pedal rod broke and I made a wooden replacement. The PLS was installed soon after the piano was delivered.
The piano lives in a typical southwestern Pennsylvania home with dry winters and more humid summers. The PLS was continuously working and maintained using pad treatment and distilled water.
You can try to make owners understand that pianos need regular service, BUT most of the time it doesn't happen. You know the old saying You can lead a horse to water….
What prompted the call from the owner was that the pedal pitman had pulled thru the hole in the pedal and the pedal was non functional. The head of the pitman is much smaller than the hole in the pedal so Baldwin put a plastic washer on the pitman to keep it from pulling thru the hole in the pedal. The washer broke and the head of the pitman pulled thru the hole in the pedal rendering the pedal non functional.
The key level is all over the place, letoff same thing, about one-quarter inch of lost motion between capstan and wippen cushion, hammer spacing all screwed up. Virtually unplayable, but made playable once again.
The PLS 5PS38 certainly had done its job, though! I was flabbergasted to find the piano at A438.
I totally believe these issues were caused by poor quality and workmanship. Finding this structural issue leads me to believe that Baldwin did not season their wood properly. It is sad that these low quality pianos are foisted off in unsuspecting buyers.
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[Wesley] [Gill[Designation]
Apollo PA
(412) 480-6125
WesleyGillWesley
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-18-2022 13:06
From: Petrus Janssen
Subject: Chinese Baldwin B52
The sad thing is that people are really happy that they just bought a new "Baldwin", thinking they got a good piano but are completely unaware that the quality of the Chinese made Baldwins is not even a vague resemblance of what Baldwin once stood for.
Peter
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Petrus Janssen
Peachtree City GA
(678) 416-8055
Original Message:
Sent: 05-18-2022 12:24
From: Joe Wiencek
Subject: Chinese Baldwin B52
I think any owner of these pianos will be fighting too many factors- poor quality materials, poor workmanship. Of the few Baldwin uprights from China I have seen, they top the list as likely the worst, or equal to the worst pianos from the East. Loose balance pins and key level that looked like a roller coaster on two separate ones, and your photos makes me think the lumber used in those pianos is not properly seasoned.
Chinese Baldwin also brought us the "stealth" action- wooden action components painted or dyed black. Owners of those actions will have the pleasure of discovering what that dye does down the road…..
Joe Wiencek
NYC
Original Message:
Sent: 5/17/2022 7:37:00 AM
From: Wesley Gill
Subject: Chinese Baldwin B52
Serviced this piano several years back when it was almost new and was quite disappointed in the overall quality of the piano. I installed a PLS at that time and had hoped she'd found a tech closer to her to service it. Sadly it went in serviced until yesterday. I was appalled when I removed the bottom board and found this: The spacer for the bridge apron is coming unglued from the board, and the apron itself has come unglued from the spacer and has split and is moving out of position.
After several years