Woo hoo! I've got a piano!

[ofajen]

For a while we thought about getting a new piano, but my wife and I both seem to prefer older pianos with a bit of character. The piano is a 1938 5' 5" Baldwin grand. Presumably made to compete with the Steinway Model M. This was made back in the days when Baldwin was really good.

It's not actually in my downstairs studio, it's up in a 26'x16' room upstairs which is mostly dining room, part study. It's a big, reverberant room with hardwood floors, double 8' patio doors on the south end and an angled ceiling that slopes up from the south end to about 14'. The piano is on the north end, in the short portion of the room with a lower ceiling, but it rises straight up to 14' just about above where piano lid opens and where the mikes will typically be.

It's been played a lot over those years and the hammers are pretty compacted and the strings look old. Probably a bit of refurb work will be in store some time down the line. However, it already plays great and sounds fabulous in this big, reverberant room. Now if I can just get the kids used to going to sleep to the sound of piano music.

Probably most of the recording of this piano will be done with one or two SM-80s, using the MixPre as preamp for the MicroTrack since it's so far from the studio gear. Time for some experimenting. I may have to drag a few Studio Traps up there to reduce the amount of reflected sound at the mikes.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[andydeedpoll]

that sounds amazing, well done

you could install some cables up from the studio and run inbetween. or those kids don't need to sleep - teach them to press the big red 'record' button when you tell them to. hehe.

got any pictures of this lovely sounding piano?

Andrew.

 

[jpw23]

Cool....I love old pianos.....I have an 1898 Mehlin inverted grand....damn thing stands about 6'

 

[dementedchord]

cool... baldwin was always known for a purer bell like quality to it's tone... and because of that they were prefered for doing small ensemble classical work... chamber music basiclly... where the steinways have more of an edge and could poke through an orchestra... baldwins typiclly sound more like boesendorfers

 

[prestomation]

Contratz! My parents have a 1897 Stultz & Bower(New York) 6' 6" or so. It's an amazing piece, I always take over the house to record it.

I'd love to hear some clips

 

[Freudian Slip]

Cool, but where's the pictures
I too have wanted a piano and hopefully will have the space soon.
Happy for ya.

F.S.

 

[ofajen]

got any pictures of this lovely sounding piano?

Andrew.

Here ya go. I'll take some in the daytime when the light is better.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[Freudian Slip]

Oooooooo! Nice!


Have you had it tuned yet.


F.S.

 

[ofajen]

Oooooooo! Nice!


Have you had it tuned yet.


F.S.

No. I'm having my tech install a humidity control system on Thursday (if it's here by then.) Then we'll have him tune it after it's settled in for about another 30 days. Actually, I think it was tuned shortly before we bought it and the move didn't seem to affect it any, so it's still pretty much in tune.


Cheers,

Otto

 

[true-eurt]

Oh my!!! That is a beautiful piano!!

Congratulations to you and Mrs Ofajen on your wonderful new musical addition...and to the little Ofajens for all the nights of pleasure, their little ears will be blessed with....

 

[Nakatira]

Wholy sheit, that is a beautifull piano, congrats man.

Now you need to compose some serious Grieg and Beethoven stuff

 

[ofajen]

Wholy sheit, that is a beautifull piano, congrats man.

Now you need to compose some serious Grieg and Beethoven stuff

I'm going to start off by learning a few of my favorite Debussy piano solos (the easier ones!) That should get me in the mood.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[dementedchord]

simply amazing it even looks lke a piano!!! actually i'm a bit envious man it would be great to have the real deal right here at home... congrats...

 

[noisewreck]

Nice! Congrats. I remember this one classroom at college had a Baldwin. That thing must've been the loudest piano I've ever played in my life! Jeezuss, it would rattle the windows like there is no tomorrow. But it was an oddity for sure.

 

[kgirl72]

In a word: jealousy. I have an old steinway, but I want yours instead.

 

[mshilarious]

I'm going to start off by learning a few of my favorite Debussy piano solos (the easier ones!)

Start with L'Isle Joyeuse, that shouldn't be too tough

 

[ofajen]

Start with L'Isle Joyeuse, that shouldn't be too tough

Very funny! First on my list is Danseuses de Delphes.

By the way, I took a few pictures in the daytime. It was cloudy so we didn't get as much light at the north end of the room as we usually do. Still, they're a little better than the shots from last night.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[XLR]

A beautiful instrument. And beautiful hardwood floors (heh, what can I say, I'm a lover of fine woodwork - even floors).

But close that laundry room door.

 

[ofajen]

But close that laundry room door.

Good point, at least when I'm taking photos. I like having that space open and coupled to the room the piano is in when I'm playing.

Our tech came today and installed the humidity control system on the piano. He'll be back in a month to tune it and we'll set aside some extra time for him to pull out the action and look things over. I'm probably going to want to have him resurface the hammers, level the strings, replace the key bushings and properly regulate the action. Then it should really be easy to play with a good tone. We kinda figured when we bought it that some of that work would need to be done, due to the substantial amount of playing that's been done on this piano.

The strings are old, but probably not original and I'm not planning on replacing them any time soon. The soundboard is in good shape. Other than what I've mentioned above, there don't appear to be any issues with the piano. It already has a consistent tone from top to bottom... it just needs some work to restore the action.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[ofajen]

Just a quick update:

We had the piano tuned for the first time about a month ago and only a couple of notes (G2 and a couple neighbors) went noticeably out of tune after that. The pinblock generally seems to be in decent shape.

Last week our tech came and adjusted the repetition springs, resurfaced the hammers, leveled the strings and fixed the funky sound of one bass string: F#1 (it had much less upper partials to its sound). That work has already improved the tone substantially, but he's coming back on Monday to spend a little time voicing a few of the notes that don't suit me as well. As soon as I can afford it, I'll have him come back and do a full regulation of the action. It's getting better! Meanwhile, I've been playing Christmas tunes.

Cheers,

Otto