[AT] OT - using pitchfork

[Ronald L. Cook]

Larry,
         I do like the Hamilton/Baldwin studio pianos.  Like you say, they 
are in churches and schools.  My piano teacher used one for primary 
instruction.  You had to be quite advanced before she would let you play 
the grand.  I don't remember what make the grand was, but it was nice!  50 
plus years ago.
My folks had a player that was about shot, and they traded it in for a 
brand new Cable-Nelson spinet for me to play.  It was okay...but I never 
did really like the sound of it nor the speed of the action.  They still 
have it, I am still not all that impressed with it.  It is super low 
mileage as it is in an upstairs room that no one visits.  Last week I 
accidently heard that  friend was selling his Acrosonic of about the same 
vintage at a very reasonable price.  Seeing as how that little spinet will 
go into my house, whereas an upright will not until I do some remodeling, I 
bought it.  Baldwin did something better than Cable-Nelson.  At least on 
this particular piano.  Good tone and action, and after it gets settled in 
here I will tune it which should make it even better.  It is in tune with 
itself, but probably not quite up to pitch.  I will have to get tuning 
tools, as I do not have any of my own.  It was last tuned in 1991.
         Tractor content....I sold my Ford 2N.  That is the only reason I 
had any money to spend on a piano.  At least according to my wife.<g>

Ron Cook
Salix, IA
>Ah, the mysteries of the myths that people instigate.  Too bad that your
>"piano tuner" didn't like uprights, Walt.  There's nothing wrong with
>them.  As a matter of fact, the old upright player pianos were more
>heavily built than ordinary ones because they really took a beating from
>being played so much.  Those will normally hold their tune and their
>tone a lot better than the lighter framed standard uprights of their
>day.  I betcha your tuner also charged a premium for tuning grand
>pianos, too.  Those are actually simpler to work on and to tune than any
>of the uprights - a LOT simpler.  There are only two styles of pianos
>that leave things to be desired -- square grand's (the mechanism is a
>Rube Goldberg nightmare and the harp is too light to hold the string
>tension correctly) and drop-action spinets (the bass strings are too
>short and the sound board is too small to get the nice harmonics out of
>the overtones that we all associate with a good piano tone.)
>
>A lot of tuners look down their noses at the Hamilton studio pianos from
>Baldwin, but those are fairly decent quality.  Every other church and
>almost all school districts own at least one of them.  They are the
>Chevy's and Ford's of pianos.  Baldwin couldn't have made and sold so
>many of them without getting something right in the design.  It's kind
>of like tractors.  We can argue with each other until we're blue in the
>face about the various merits of Farmall, John Deere, Case, Ford, and
>all the other colors, but when it comes right down to it, there wouldn't
>be so many of them out there if the designers hadn't gotten something
>right.
>
>BTW, I own a Yamaha U3 upright. It is one of the largest upright pianos
>in the current market.
>
>Larry