How to Open A Baldwin Spinet

[Terry Farrell]

Another first for me. As we all know, sometimes music desks on verticals can be a bit of a puzzle to open/remove. I don’t let many of them get the better of me, but some years ago I did run across a late 1940s Chickering console that really threw me for a loop until I figured it out. 

And then yesterday. Baldwin spinet. Actually, I’m quite sure it was an Acrosonic. Now I’ve serviced WAY more Baldwin spinets than I care to admit to, and I’ve never had any trouble figuring out how to open the darn things - until yesterday. Took me a good ten or 15 minutes to figure this one out - simply had never seen one like it before. Two screws under the keybed that screw up into the cheekblocks.

This thing opens up wide like some of those old Wurlitzers - I really like having wide-open access like this arrangement provides. I could actually mute C88 easily for tuning!

I felt a little bit better after the client told me that the last technician gave up and walked away………   ;-)

Terry Farrell

Sorry, forgot to take a photo of it put together.

[richa...@comcast.net]

I think I did one of those ones pretty interesting.

Rick Ucci

Uccipiano.com

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[Regi Hedahl]

Most Acrosonics take 2 minutes to take apart and 20 minutes to put back together. This must have been the opposite.

Regi

[Joseph Garrett]

Cool!<G> I have not encountered one like that.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Farrell
Sent: May 3, 2016 4:20 AM
To: pian...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [pianotech] How to Open A Baldwin Spinet

Another first for me. As we all know, sometimes music desks on verticals can be a bit of a puzzle to open/remove. I don’t let many of them get the better of me, but some years ago I did run across a late 1940s Chickering console that really threw me for a loop until I figured it out. 

And then yesterday. Baldwin spinet. Actually, I’m quite sure it was an Acrosonic. Now I’ve serviced WAY more Baldwin spinets than I care to admit to, and I’ve never had any trouble figuring out how to open the darn things - until yesterday. Took me a good ten or 15 minutes to figure this one out - simply had never seen one like it before. Two screws under the keybed that screw up into the cheekblocks.

This thing opens up wide like some of those old Wurlitzers - I really like having wide-open access like this arrangement provides. I could actually mute C88 easily for tuning!

I felt a little bit better after the client told me that the last technician gave up and walked away………   ;-)

Terry Farrell

Sorry, forgot to take a photo of it put together.

Captain of the Tool Police
Squares R I
gpianoworks.com

[David Kroenlein]

Yea, you need 3 hands to reinstall those crazy hanger system! Why did they have to make it so confounded difficult!?

Sent from my iPhone

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/3/2016 12:24 PM, David Kroenlein wrote:
> Yea, you need 3 hands to reinstall those crazy hanger system! Why did
> they have to make it so confounded difficult!?

That's a matter of one side at a time with the mounting segment pointing
in the right direction when you set it in the piano. Tape them together
if necessary. Those fallboard hangers/guides in Baldwin verticals, that
everyone hates, are the simplest, cheapest, most dependable and most
brilliant design I've ever seen for that particular purpose. I'd be
proud to have my name on them.

For the folks who spend fifteen minutes trying to orient the arms
right: Everyone and his dog carries an Iphone, or some other cell phone
with a camera. Take a picture of the damned thing before you take it
apart if you can't figure out how to get it back together by now. This
applies to ANYTHING you take apart that is new to you or repeatedly
baffling.
Ron N

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/3/2016 6:20 AM, Terry Farrell wrote:
> Another first for me. As we all know, sometimes music desks on verticals
> can be a bit of a puzzle to open/remove. I don’t let many of them get
> the better of me, but some years ago I did run across a late 1940s
> Chickering console that really threw me for a loop until I figured it out.

Some time in my first few years in business, I found one I couldn't get
into. It beat me. No screws that I didn't remove, nothing under parts I
could remove - nothing. From the sides, back, top, and underneath,
behind the end keys - nothing. I even pounded on everything with my
hands to see if there was a hidden lock plate sort of thing. I couldn't
make anything move. I expect it was a hidden lock, overly tight, but I
never discovered it. That's the only one that beat me, and I still think
about it once in a while and wonder how close I got.
Ron N

[Jim Moy]

Hey Terry, yeah I did one of those for the first time two months ago. Took me some minutes of puzzling but finally got it open. Thought it was a cute little unit when it was together. Of course it still sounds and feels like a spinet. Still thought it was enjoyable figuring out something new.

-Jim

[Terry Farrell]

Were you the tech my client called before me that walked away?

;-)

Terry Farrell

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/3/2016 4:32 PM, Terry Farrell wrote:
> Were you the tech my client called before me that walked away?
>
> ;-)
>
> Terry Farrell

Didn't I say I looked underneath?
Ron N

[Cliff Lesher]

On May 3, 2016, at 1:59 PM, Ron Nossaman <rnos...@cox.net> wrote:
>
> That's a matter of one side at a time with the mounting segment pointing in the right direction when you set it in the piano. Tape them together if necessary. Those fallboard hangers/guides in Baldwin verticals, that everyone hates, are the simplest, cheapest, most dependable and most brilliant design I've ever seen for that particular purpose. I'd be proud to have my name on them.

I agree that the Baldwin fallboard guides are good. However, believe it or not, I think the best-designed fallboard mechanism for small verticals is in the Lester Betsy Ross spinet. I see quite a few Betsys and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with a poorly operating fallboard. Those cute little end-blocks that slide over an indexing pin and fasten with a single screw are as simple as can be and, in my experience, have stood up to the test of time. I also like Lester's waterfall keys for a starter piano, toe blocks to support the legs, and a music support that is hinged, not fastened with those silly end-horns that fail before the first piano lesson.

It’s too bad the musical instruments inside those decent little cabinets are so...(provide your own adjective).

Cliff Lesher
Winfield, PA

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/3/2016 6:06 PM, Cliff Lesher wrote:
>
> I agree that the Baldwin fallboard guides are good. However, believe
> it or not, I think the best-designed fallboard mechanism for small
> verticals is in the Lester Betsy Ross spinet. I see quite a few
> Betsys and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with a poorly operating
> fallboard. Those cute little end-blocks that slide over an indexing
> pin and fasten with a single screw are as simple as can be and, in my
> experience, have stood up to the test of time. I also like Lester's
> waterfall keys for a starter piano, toe blocks to support the legs,
> and a music support that is hinged, not fastened with those silly
> end-horns that fail before the first piano lesson.

I've sure tuned a bunch of those, but I can't remember what the
fallboard system looks like. Probably because they never were any
trouble, therefor not memorable. Or maybe I was just busy redesigning my
Lester detector early warning system (for the telephone) and was
distracted.

> It’s too bad the musical instruments inside those decent little
> cabinets are so...(provide your own adjective).

Lestrish? Sounds vaguely Celtic...
Ron N

[Terry Farrell]

I’ve always thought those fallboards on Wurlitzers were super-simple, very functional and easy to disassemble. I like them. I know there were other good designs also. I don’t remember the Betsy right off hand either. But man, soooooo many are soooooooo baaaaad!

Terry Farrell

[Regi Hedahl]

To refresh our memories, here's the key cover mounting hardware on a Lester Betsy Ross.  It just takes 2 screws on each side to remove and very simple to reinstall.

This is one of my budget pianos that I keep on hand just in case someone wants to purchase a real piano for less money than a digital.  I fixed the split hammer rail and tuned it.  Biggest downfall is it has plastic damper flanges but none have broke yet.  All else is wood.  Overall, the piano sounds nicer than the average spinet to my ears and it's certainly more enjoyable to play than a digital.

Regi

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/3/2016 9:13 PM, Regi Hedahl wrote:
> To refresh our memories, here's the key cover mounting hardware on a
> Lester Betsy Ross. It just takes 2 screws on each side to remove and
> very simple to reinstall.

Oh yes! Cliff, you got it. A very nice system.
Ron N

[Ron Koval]

Wow, I ran into the exact same set-up today! 

Heavy player bought it cheep about a decade ago.  I was the first in-home tuner... One broken bass string (the reason for the call) and some action issues led me to suggest that since there are a lot of used instruments hitting the market, it might be a better choice to move on to the next...

Ron Koval

---

From: farrellpi...@gmail.com

Subject: [pianotech] How to Open A Baldwin Spinet

Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 07:20:29 -0400
To: pian...@googlegroups.com

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/3/2016 7:03 PM, Terry Farrell wrote:
> I’ve always thought those fallboards on Wurlitzers were super-simple,
> very functional and easy to disassemble. I like them. I know there were
> other good designs also. I don’t remember the Betsy right off hand
> either. But man, soooooo many are soooooooo baaaaad!

I thought they were over engineered. I've had them buzz too.
Ron N

[David Kroenlein]

Do you mean a split hammer rest rail, or a split hammer flange rail?  Did you have to dissassemble everything to reglue it?

--
Sent from Gmail Mobile

[Cliff Lesher]

Not a fan of the horizontal scissors jack either. The jack arms bend easily and can cause in-’n’-out scratches on the fallboard finish. Plus, whenever I open up an old Wurlitzer spinet, it looks like someone’s been baking cookies in there. What the heck is that flour that “grows” on the scissors and, for that matter, on some pressure bars?

Cliff Lesher
Winfield, PA

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/3/2016 9:47 PM, Cliff Lesher wrote:
> What the heck is that flour that “grows” on the scissors and, for
> that matter, on some pressure bars?

Zinc oxide, I think. No sunburned noses.

Ron N

[Ron Nossaman]

For what it's worth, it occurs to me that Baldwin added the other
complicating parts compared to the Betsy Ross system because it provided
the needed travel for the "eitherseer" fallboard in the Acrosonic. You
know, you can see either the keys, or the strings, but barely both at once.
Ron N

[Cliff Lesher]

On May 4, 2016, at 3:17 PM, Ron Nossaman <rnos...@cox.net> wrote:
>
>
> For what it's worth, it occurs to me that Baldwin added the other complicating parts compared to the Betsy Ross system because it provided the needed travel for the "eitherseer" fallboard in the Acrosonic. You know, you can see either the keys, or the strings, but barely both at once.
> Ron N

Exactly! You mute up with the thing closed and tune with a sliver of the sharps exposed.

Cliff Lesher
Winfield, PA

[Regi Hedahl]

This piano had a split hammer flange rail.  The only thing I had to disassemble was the sustain pedal rod that goes across the area that was split.  I then glued it with Titebond and used various clamps to tie it all back together.  Sometimes, I'll even add some screws at the ends.  This seems to be quite a common problem down here in my area where it is very hot and humid so I have repaired a bunch of these.

Regi Hedahl

[David Kroenlein]

I tried to reglue a couple rails that were split the whole length pf the action--wasnt very successful --i took everything off so i could get the clamps in place, but still couldnt get an adequite glue bond. Thats a very springy piece of wood!

Sent from my iPhone

[Joseph Garrett]

David,

Next time, you might try putting some cross dowels in to eliminate some of that "springy". Like a whole bunch of them.

Best,

Joe

[David Kroenlein]

Ahhh! Great idea! Wish i'd thought of it at the time!

Sent from my iPhone