Steinway boards

[FirTree@aol.com]

Stephen Birkett wrote:

>I was once told by North Hudson Woodcraft that they ship full-size
>soundboard panels to Steinway, as opposed to just rough lumber...I
>assume they mean glued-up oversize panels which are then completed
>(ribbed, crowned, finished etc. in the Steinway factory). I
>mentioned this information in response to a question on
>rec.music.makers.piano (newsgroup), to which I received various
>attacks from a Mr Bob Sneider. He maintains that Steinway receives
>only a fraction of their stock from North Hudson, mostly they use
>Sitka from the NW, and that they *never* receive anything but rough
>lumber (he mentioned getting this information from F. Mohr). Apart
>from the aggressiveness of Mr Snyder's posts (which annoyed me) I am
>curious to know the *true* story on this...so, do any of you
>Steinway intimates know the history of Steinway boards, from tree to
>board? Perhaps Mr Mohr was simply exercising public relations when Mr
>Snyder called him.

I was told by Posey Manufacturing in Hoquiam, WA, during a tour a few years
ago, that they had sent glued up boards to Steinway when Steinway's own
sounboard people were swamped. Steinway's preference was to make the boards
themselves.

As to the gentleman's claims, the french would say that 'never' is a very big
word.

Dave Stocker
firtree@aol.com
Tumwater, WA