Baldwin Electropiano

[willi]

Hi

 

I picked up a Baldwin Electropiano the other day, for a mere $75 (ok, I gave her $80 since nobody had exact change). It seems to have been quite a deal! As you may know, the Electropiano has strings, hammers, and piezoelectric pickups similar to the Yamaha CP series.

 

There are 88 keys (yay!) and it is arranged in a spinet fashion. It's very freaking heavy. A source of both amusement and consternation is the fact the rear handholds are located in a piece of particleboard! The CP70B's that I own feel heavier in the key action, and the construction seems better on the CP's. That said, Baldwin evidentially made a road version of the Electropiano at one point, which I have never seen but would be an interesting comparison.

 

This model has a 'teacher' preamp in it, with a couple of inputs and outputs for tape, aux, phono, students return.. There seems to be some putty in the headphone socket, and I can only wonder if that was the work of a frustrated student (in which case a replacement jack should be an easy fix) or if that was a technicians way of saying 'don't use this, it is broken here'.

 

The sustain pedal can wiggle quite a bit, and I think adding or replacing a little felt is the simple fix but I'd like to know more. I'm also considering getting a set of key weights (from VintageVibe, designed for the Wurlitzer200 series) and putting them into the Electropiano (for both a heavier action and a faster key return), but that project is a ways off still, if ever.

 

I've searched for more exhaustive information online but haven't found much. There doesn't seem to be a Yahoo group for it, either. Can anyone point me towards some more information? In particular, I'd like to learn a bit more about the amp, repairs/mods, and the instruments in general.

 

I'll upload some pics later if anyone is interested.

 

Thanks

willi

[mate_stubb]

I carried one on the road for several years. Just to make it more challenging, I built a gigantic road case for it, capable of holding a good half dozen dead bodies.

 

I can't provide any tech resource links either - mine never broke down so I never had to fix it.

[The Pro]

I played one one and off in a band in the early 80's. It wasn't mine but it did the job. Don't remember much about it except the weight - ridiculously heavy. And it had to be tuned. But it got us through the Journey covers pretty well. Good luck with that.

 

BTW: I think it's called a "Baldwin ElectroPro Piano".

[mrcpro]

If you search "ElectroPro" you should find more on it. As The Pro said.

 

I also used one for several years in the late 1970s. As did several keyboard players in the Seattle area before the advent of the CP series, including the band Heart. Anyone dissatisfied with the sound of a Rhodes for rock had one onstage.

 

Among many other issues, they don't hold their tuning very well if you are using it in a band. Yamaha's Humid-A-Seal tuning block was a huge improvement.

 

Probably the worst disaster I remember involving an ElectroPro happened to another keyboard player. Upon opening the equipment truck he found the harp assembly on the deck busted loose from the rest of the piano.

 

They are not bolted in but held in with screws. And screwed into particleboard blocks if I remember right. From then on we moved mine flat on it's back on top of a mattress. Which presented it's own set of challenges.... getting that thing packed on top of the PA cabs.

 

Moving on to a CP80 was one of the biggest keyboard upgrades I've ever done. But for $80 you did well. It is a piece of keyboard history, used heavily for several years, simply because no one else had anything like it at the time.

[scientist]

i (sort of) have one of these too. a friend scored one at a garage sale...apparently its original home was for classrooms at a community college (this is in seattle as well). unfortunately in his attempts to repair it - and because of the particle board construction - it basically fell to pieces and all that's left is the harp, strings and pickup contraption. i took it off his hands and now it sits in the corner waiting to be used for some weird project or other...maybe as world's largest electronic hammered dulcimer.

[whurly]

I got one for nothing and that was too much. It was damnably heavy and had uneven action. The only good thing about it was the feeling of relief when it was gone.

[whurly]

Oh, and I forgot, the wiring was really dodgy...

[stillearning]

I had one of these too, in the mid 70's to the early 80's. It was on the road a lot, so we re-built parts of the frame with plywood, and then built it into a flight case. Held up rather well, and mine held tune pretty well too. We'd get it tuned maybe once or twice a month (if memory serves), depending on the weather. Tuners didn't care for these things with the pins on the back, though. Harder to tune. Mine was an earlier triple stringed model, I think they switched to single strings on later ones. Never had a problem, and it was the only way to get a decent piano sound back then on the road.

[mate_stubb]

 

I had one of these too, in the mid 70's to the early 80's. It was on the road a lot, so we re-built parts of the frame with plywood, and then built it into a flight case. Held up rather well, and mine held tune pretty well too. We'd get it tuned maybe once or twice a month (if memory serves), depending on the weather. Tuners didn't care for these things with the pins on the back, though. Harder to tune. Mine was an earlier triple stringed model, I think they switched to single strings on later ones. Never had a problem, and it was the only way to get a decent piano sound back then on the road.

 

 

Exactly. I built a road case for mine, bought a tuning hammer and a Conn strobe tuner, and touched it up every month or so. Carrying it in a case meant that it didn't disintegrate and held its tuning well.

 

Mine was triple stringed as well. I thought it actually sounded richer in the upper registers than the CP-70, and the bass was slightly less tubby.