[pianotech] Steinert Grand

[Pianoman]

In my experience the model S is the least successful in sales of all the 
pianos I tune.  Very, very few S's around St. Louis, the majority being M's 
and L's.  I have not had particular issues with the S.
James
James Grebe
Since 1962
Piano Tuning & Repair
Creator of Handsome Hardwood Products(
314) 608-4137   1526 Raspberry Lane   Arnold, MO 63010
Researcher of St. Louis Theatre History
BECOME WHAT YOU BELIEVE!
www.grebepiano.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <bppiano at aol.com>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 9:54 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Steinert Grand


> I?don't knew if this is relevant to the original post; when I was 
> attending the Steinway Technical Institute, taught by Eric Shandall, 
> I?commented on how  successful the "S" was at maintaining the "Steinway" 
> sound.? He went?on about how much time, effort, and resources went into 
> the development of a small grand requested by the Curtiss Institute 
> suitable for an apartment in which they house their students.? Finally, 
> they developed success with their "diaphragmatic."  (sp) soundboard now a 
> part of every grand Steinway produces.?
>
> Bruce Pennington
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Israel Stein <custos3 at comcast.net>
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Sent: Mon, Jul 6, 2009 6:01 pm
> Subject: [pianotech] Steinert Grand
>
>
>
>>My guess is that Steinert copied most of the Steinway scales, so Steinway
>>thought turn around was fair play and copied the Steinert A and made the
>>"S".
>
>>It's nothing factual, just my theory. It's hard to get much info on the
>>Steinert.
>
>>Al G
>
> Al,
>
> There's a lot of information about the Steinert pianos and the company 
> itself kicking around Boston. Heck, I bet there are still people in the 
> piano business around Massachusetts who got some of the lore passed down 
> to them from relatives who worked at the factory. You just have to pick 
> the right brains...
>
> The Steinert company itself is a remnant from the pre-depression glory 
> days of the American piano industry, when there were dozens of piano 
> manufacturers all around Cambridge, Roxbury and some mill towns such as 
> Lowell, Haverhill, Leominster, etc.? The Steinert store is the last 
> remaining one of what used to be known as "Piano Row" - two solid blocks 
> of Boylson St. with nothing but piano and music stores fronting on the 
> Boston Common and the Public Garden where every manufacturer had their own 
> store. Chickering, Vose, Estey, Mason & Hamlin, Ivers & Pond, Wurlitzer, 
> the list goes on... Steinert's is the last one left. When I was working 
> there in the early nineties, the only other remnants were Fischer Co. and 
> the Boston Music Co. - music and instrument stores. One moved and the 
> other one closed during that time. One of the old "Piano Row" blocks was 
> leveled to build the Four Seasons hotel. The other is still there - with 
> Steinert's the only music-related business on it, as far
>  as I know (for a while a Baldwin dealership occupied the old Wurlitzer 
> store). In my eleven years in Boston I managed to absorb an awful lot of 
> local piano information from various people - I'm sure some of it urban 
> legends. But if you are really interested - there are people there who 
> could tell you... The trick is to get a hold of them.
>
> The story I got is that Steinway at the turn of the 20th century could not 
> possibly meet the demand for their pianos - couldn't even come close. So 
> it allowed its dealers to copy their scales for pianos that they built - 
> or had built for them - on the condition that they not market them under 
> their own (the dealers') names. So the initial pianos built at Morris 
> Steinert's Leominster factory with Steinway scales were marketed under the 
> "Jewett" and "Hume" brands. I was told that Mr. Jewett was the factroy 
> foreman and Mr. Hume a scale designer. Or vice versa. In 1912 (according 
> to Pierce Piano Atlas) Steinway dropped the restrtiction and allowed 
> dealers to market the pianos with copied scales under their own brands - 
> which is when the "Poor Man's Steinway" Steinerts first show up.? As far 
> as the "reverse copying" of the Steinway S scale from the Steinert A - I 
> don't know, doesn't quite fit my idea of how they operated in the old days 
> (pre-CBS)...
>
> Israel Stein?
>
>
>
>
>