heavy Steinway action

Wimblees@aol.com Wimblees@aol.com
Tue, 3 Jun 2003 08:33:07 EDT


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In a message dated 6/3/03 3:10:01 AM Central Daylight Time, davner@kaosol.net 
writes:

> Does anyone call Steinway about these heavy actions?  What do they say?  Or 
> do they deny any accusations of having built anything "wrong"?  Or is it not 
> "wrong", but just heavy to certain players? 
>    Has Steinway changed capstan alignment or angle or knuckle size recently? 
>   
>    If this were a new company just starting up, I could see how there might 
> be action problems to iron out, but if a certain size action is basically the 
> same as the one in front of or behind it on the assembly line, how can there 
> be that much variance? 
>     --David Nereson, RPT
> 

As Ed and Ric said, action making is an art, and all pianos should be 
prepped. But more important, and this is what I asked about before, is given that 
each action is different, the player needs to pick out the piano he/she likes. 
If, after a couple of years, the player complains about the action, we need to 
ask, "Is it any different from when you first got the piano?" Actions are kind 
of like a pair of shoes. If they don't fit and feel good when you first put 
them on, you can't "wear them in." With an action, there is not going to be much 
difference in the way it feels in the first couple of years, unless there is 
something wrong. But I don't think we should try to do some wholesale changes 
to an action that wasn't put there in the first place. Because when you change 
one thing adjustment, it has an effect on the other adjustments. 

This is why artists try out all the pianos in Steinway Hall to pick out the 
one they like the best. When we bought our B and D, the chair of our 
department, who is also a concert pianist, went to NY to pick out the piano he liked 
best. When I sold pianos, and when I advice people on buying pianos, I tell them 
to lookt for three things in a piano, how does it look, how does it sound and 
how does it feel. If any one of those three is not right, look for another 
piano. 

In other words, with regard to the customer who complained about the heavy 
action on a 3 or 4 year old Steinway, the first thing we need to ask is, "Is 
this what you bought?" If it is, there isn't much we can do to change it. 

Wim 

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