S&S Sound

[Charles K. Ball]

Dear Norman,

I will presume to respond to your inquiry.  I work primarily on Steinways
at the UT School of Music and in my private clientele.  Also I prep new
Steinways for the local Steinway dealer.

The Steinways of the last 20 years differ radically in workmanship and
quality.  In my opinion, within that range of years, you can see the
Steinway piano at its nadir of workmanship and at its zenith.

Steinway & Sons was sold to CBS in 1972 by the last president from the
family, Henry Z. Steinway.  Already having technical problems stemming from
labor unrest, shortages of quality materials, such as buckskin and felt,
and from the misguided conversion of parts production to the teflon
bushing, the firm was suffering as well from a decrepit factory and
obsolete equipment.

CBS apparently made some investment in the factory, but was primarily
interested in increasing output...even at the cost of quality.  The large
purchase of Steinway pianos that our School made in 1980 probably
represents some of the worst Steinway pianos that I hope to ever see.  They
are rife with manufacturing problems, even in the concert instruments; and
visually demonstrate the lowest standard of workmanship that I have seen
from that company.  These come from a period when the factory was moving
away from the teflon bushing; but was still inept in making high quality
wool bushied parts.  Eventually, they started using imported Renner action
parts in the B and D models and Kluge keyboards in all.  Now all the
production action parts are manufactured in New York, I believe, and are of
good quality.

In the mid-1980's Steinway suffered greatly from the public calumny of
serious questions raised in the national press and elsewhere about its
quality control and especially about the stability of the soundboard
installations.  There were accusations that the boards were developing
compression ridges and subsequently splitting excessively.  Fans like
myself became concerned that the company would not survive this devastating
publicity.

Yet, under the new owners, who purchased the company in the mid-1980's, the
piano has steadily improved.  When I began prepping the new Steinways just
4 or 5 years ago, there were still a lot of problems, especially in the
actions.  Today, I find that I am working on the finest new Steinways that
I have seen in my professional lifetime (30 years).  The actions are
generally well regulated, and very light and responsive.  And in some cases
the tone quality is equal to any instrument that I have seen from the
so-called golden ears (which, of course, depends upon your perspective).

And the finishes and cases are often extraordinarily beautiful, especially
those in exotic woods and antique case styles.  I do not know just what has
changed in New York; but the piano they are producing is truly
extraordinary.  I have a feeling that some of our colleagues there,
including Michael Mohr, deserve our praise.

Norman, I hope this helps answer your question.  As far as selectivity is
concerned, while I believe there is much more consistency in the Steinway
quality today than there was 15 years ago, I would always recommend
choosing a new piano from the largest selection available.


Norman wrote:

Steinway makes a great piano.  I tune a lot of them and enjoy tuning
>them, and have helped many customers over the years move up to a
>Steinway, both new and used.  I don=92t do much with the model D, which is
>probably the mainstay for many of you on campus, but do service all of
>the smaller models from S up to a couple old Cs.
>
>        I would appreciate comments on the sound you find with older Steinw=
ay
>grands and baby grands versus those produced within approximately the
>last 20 years.  I am asking because I often find problems with the
>quality of sound in the newer Steinways, particularly with the treble
>often being too shallow, tinny, bright, and lacking power, compared with
>their older pianos.  I have talked to some technicians about this, and
>would be interested in comments from subscribers to this listserver.
>
>        Personally, I believe that the S&S grands and baby grands of the 50=
s,
>60s, and earlier were fairly uniformly of excellent tonal quality,
>whereas when purchasing more recent models, much more selectivity is
>required.  If you agree, any opinions as to the cause?
>
>Thanks.
>                Norman Brickman
>                nbb@us.net

Charles Ball
The School of Music
The University of Texas at Austin
ckball@mail.utexas.edu