Early Steinway Grand

[Bdshull@AOL.COM]

Hi, Kent:

I know of two of these early 7' Steinways, one is my own.  You say yours went 
to Europe and came back;  mine also traveled - to China and back (an American 
doctor took it with him to China in the 20's, and it was serviced there - the 
newspaper keypunchings have Chinese characters).  I think yours survived its 
jaunt better, though.  

Mine fits your description exactly,  even to the sad modernization via 
removal of ornamentation, replacement of legs - except my cabinet is still 
finishable in rosewood.   It measures 7'3"  and is called a Style 2 - some 
call it a "C" but I haven't seen any Steinway literature refer to it that way 
("A Guide to Restringing"  lists a 1871 "C" with 24 bass notes - my Style 2 
has 20 bass notes like yours).  Mine was made in 1878 - Theodore Steinway was 
already well on his way with the modern A-B-C-D designs, and I think some 
were already in production.  An 8'11' version of this design (more below) has 
a cast piece attached to an open cutoff bar area with bolts - meant to stress 
the SB and affect impedance somehow, I guess (like the Julius Bauer idea, but 
only in the cutoff bar area).  My Style 2 has the cutoff area, but no 
hardware for ruining the SB.

You mention that the piano's service history has not been so bad - does it 
have a decent treble sound still?

These pianos have a substantial spreader/pinblock which is mortised and 
bolted into the case on each side - no shelf - and replacement requires 
opening up the case on each side.  I have heard of a high failure rate for 
all methods of pinblock replacement and repair, and have been advised that 
replacement should be a tight fit, and as closely follow the original design 
as possible.   I know some on this list are experienced with this - I will do 
this for the first time soon.  I think that the real problem with these 
designs is the post beam/belly structure which doesn't have to separate very 
much to result in tonal deterioration - I also suspect that the pinblock 
replacement job wasn't very secure on a similar 9' I service, and it raised 
slightly (the plate does not extend past the pinblock - even the struts stop 
at the pinblock flange.  I plan on SB replacement for my Style 2 but intend 
to do whatever reinforcement is needed to the rim/beam structure first.

I tune an 8'11" or 9' of the same style.  it is of the same design, except 
the forward duplex rests on it are actually separable nickel plated pieces, 
while my Style 2 has front duplexing, the duplex bars are cast into the plate 
- and it came to me with felt over the duplexing under the strings (what's 
the point of the front duplexing, then?).  This 9' had both pinblock and SB 
replaced, but unfortunately the SB job was bad, board flattened out and there 
is no bearing, so top half of piano is dead.  I assume that in good condition 
this instrument should remind us tonally of a Bechstein, possibly?

If you are certain that this piano has only a 3 digit serial number, then the 
design had quite a history for Steinway - I would like to know about this. 

What type of action rails/frame does it have?

Bill Shull
University of Redlands, La Sierra University 



In a message dated 11/4/99 7:14:18 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
kswafford@earthlink.net writes:

<< I received a call from a new customer asking me if I was interested in 
 tuning an old Steinway. He said it was among the first made, and was 
 "nothing special." I told him I was eager to see the instrument but (the 
 usual disclaimer).
 
 What I found when I came to the instrument was an 85 note 7' grand of no 
 recognizable model; the scale resembled a modern D with the bass/tenor 
 break at f2 and wound trichords just below the break. The rim was not 
 continuous and the pinblock was open-faced and along with the tuning pins 
 was tilted down toward the strings to match the angle of the strings 
 coming up from the agraffes.
  >>