Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Repinning/restringing with Lo-Torq

"F" was the forerunner of the SF10. Serial number would be helpful. Block may be too old, needing replacement. Nevertheless, examine the block thoroughly for splits. If it is still decent, oversize + 2 is usually recommended. So, that would require 5/0. Be sure and jack the block while driving the pins.

Hi forum,

About to embark on restringing a Baldwin F. The current pins are 3/0 x 2 1/2" in the bass and 3/0 2 3/8" in the treble. The pinblock was appropriately snug throughout, tune held well. Could one get away with 3.5/0 x 2 3/8 Lo-Torq throughout the scale, or is it best to go all the way to 4/0?

I'm thinking I'll save doing a new pinblock for the next go around in say 10-20 years when it would probably be appropriate to also consider some bridge work as well.

Thoughts?

Thanks all!

Beethoven, I don't disagree. I considered it quite a fortuitous find given that it was retired from the fleet of a major university and at one heck of a good price given its potential value (if done right of course). If anything I'm slightly intimidated by going to the extent of a new block, because it has been quite a few years since I last did such extensive work, and then under the tutelage of a good tech. Perhaps a good tech in the Seattle area might be willing to serve in an advisory/mentoring capacity. If anyone has such a recommendation I'd be thrilled.

Bob, the serial is 146256 (ca. 1960 by my research). Presumably restrung once already, maybe in the early 80's. If it were really necessary to go all the way to 5/0 then I may as well jump off the deep end and do a new block with appropriate 2/0. Since the instrument is on site and can't be brought to my shop/workplace I'm trying to take a reasonable (if conservative) approach. Im still going through the rest of it so that it will look and perform well however.

James, I personally don't consider using existing pins the route I would prefer, especially since I'm going to the trouble to put everything back in to first rate condition, including re-lacquering. It would be a shame in mind to have a nicely repaired and refinished case and hardware with tired looking blued pins. Also, since there was an inconsistency in pin length (no idea why) I wanted to do the intelligent thing and get the thoughts of the forums more experienced techs/rebuilders.

Thanks all!

I can say is that I never check the size of the tuning pins before I tune. It might be interesting to see if any of the other techs here do...

Thanks Keith. I'm sure I'll be calling upon your experience at some point. I'm fairly comfortable with the woodworking aspect of it and all the drilling work. So many holes is not unlike organ work, and the need for accuracy and caution at a drill press. I'm more concerned about a good fit to the plate since much of the initial shaping of the blank will have to be at my workplace whereas the piano is at the church. I suppose doing the rough shaping in shop and then taking select tools onsite for getting a good fit to the plate/flange is not out of the question though. I'm painfully aware this is a part where small errors can equal large expense if not done correctly the first time around.

Is it true that Baldwin pinblocks are fairly simple to remove and replace? I have seen a post or too eluding it doesn't get much easier.

What do you think Keith... is a new pinblock worth it for those fantastic new strings Ari is making for it, and all the rest I'm going to put on?