Hi All. Ah, the power of MMD and the Internet! I would like to
thank all who responded to my original post. I located several Baldwin
players, and some really sound advice of how to possibly rebuild the
original strung back. This led me to a Hamilton upright piano located
about 50 miles from here.
After taking dozens of measurements of the original strung back,
action, keys and plate, I went to inspect the potential replacement
piano, a regular upright. I was very concerned that this piano was
most likely a different scale, so imagine my surprise when I opened the
case to find an almost identical strung back, all measurements check
out, and the piano is in great shape and well maintained. It was one
of those "restyled" mirror pianos -- yuck!
I'm probably going to be "called on the carpet" by the purists for not
making an effort to repair the original soundboard. However, I have
successfully transplanted strung backs before, and it is not a simple
procedure of merely dropping the action back in. On the first one, it
was a Foster strung back transplanted into a Marshall & Wendell player.
This is about the time that I learned of the importance of the hammer
striking point, and piano design, information I would have never
learned otherwise.
I plan to document and photograph this restoration on the Tempola web
site. It's still under construction, and will be several weeks before
it's presentable: http://members.aol.com/tempola
I plan to post some of my old piano arrangements in the site in MIDI
format and some other free goodies. Sharing piano MIDI files would be
great.
At this point, I am still uncertain about producing piano rolls,
however, that depends largely upon interest, and if I can find the
spare time. My link gets yours.
Cheers,
Andy Taylor - Tempola Music Rolls
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