S&S Hamburg New York

[John Musselwhite]

At 11:21 PM 10/9/2000 +0200, Brian wrote:

>Can you read it now? How I'm doing - see other post

That's better... Stationery is nice, but it can be messy in a list.

>Hi, for those of you who stateside, what distinguishs a New York S&S from a

I'm "provinceside" (or is that "provincial"?)... is that close enough? B-})

>Hamburg? There is a model O in the shop here and on the plate it has Reg US
>patent and STEINWAY below the top treble pins, yet its serial# 288705 dates
>it at 1936 but Piece says the model O was discontinued in 1923 in the US.

The obvious answer then would be that yours is a Hamburg model, which I 
think is still in production. If not it should be, IMO.

There is one obvious visual difference between them. New York Os will 
almost always have square arms on the case as opposed to the rounded ones 
favoured by Hamburg. As well, the pedals on the NY lyre will be mounted on 
a brass or nickle-plated plate for easy removal of the mechanism, whereas 
the Hamburg's pedal box will probably be all wood. Those two features 
should identify most pianos from the two factories with the rounded arms 
being a dead giveaway for a Hamburg.

Other than that the only major physical difference between them of which 
I'm aware is the Hamburg's rim is reportedly made from laminated mahogany 
and beech as opposed to the NY's rock maple. IIRC the core wood inside the 
brass action rails on the Hamburg's aren't maple either and there may be 
slight differences between the two in the general finishing of the action 
and its cavity.

Hope that helps.

                         John

John Musselwhite, RPT    -     Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.musselwhite.com  http://canadianpianopage.com/calgary
email: john@musselwhite.com    http://www.mp3.com/fatbottom