Part 1: The Discovery

Welcome to the Baldwin Combo Harpsichord Project page. Herein is a dramatic story of trauma, hope and eventual redemption; or how I rescued a rare vintage instrument from the tyranny of a 4-year-old whose evil plans were to destroy it before it could could ever be fully honored.

Part I : The Discovery

One evening on a break at work I hit one of several local free classifieds (not craig's) and saw this advert:

My first hope was that I had miraculously stumbled onto a Hohner D6 for free. Trying not to crap my pants I called the number. As the woman on the line described the instrument and I was slightly disappointed. While we chatted I was searching the web looking for info but there was nothing. I told her I'd call her back if I were interested. And that was that...

I couldn't just let it go. I dug for details but only tracked down a vintage advertisement being sold on eBay for old Baldwin instruments. I posted to a forum that I follow for another project instrument that I rescued (1972 Fender Rhodes Suitcase), www.fenderhordes.com. I asked for help identifying the Baldwin. After a day or two someone posted a reply to my question with a link to some good info.

I was surprised to see the list of previous users, the Beatles, the Beach Boys...very cool. I put on the song Because from Abby Road to hear the instrument first hand. Needless to say my interest grew pretty quickly.

I dialed the seller back up and asked her if I could just have the instrument. After all, it was advertised for free or trade. 'Unfortunately, I don't own anything but a room full of broken old instruments,' I told her, 'nothing to trade.'

She told me something to the tune of, "if you want to drive out here you can have it. I haven't had any other interest."

Great! She lives an hour from me, but who cares? Let's roll!