Steinway K

[Richard Brekne]

Hi folks

I ran into a Steinway K serial # 212072 looks like anno 1920 or
something. I had done some work on this a couple years back, reshaping
the hammers, cleaning the action up... tuning.. just basics and they
wanted me to come tune it again. I was suprised at how well the darn
thing was still in tune, tho it had dropped to 436 at A3. Not bad
considering what a pitch raise it had recieved a couple years ago.

However... the point is... and this goes to our recent discussion on
sustain times and the ever ongoing debate about compression crowned
boards and the rest of that...., This old lady had an A5  sustain of
just about 10 seconds. A6 was at about 4. The piano overall had a very
pleasant sound, tho it could have been voiced a bit rounder. Perhaps
next time.... :) The only real complaint soundwise was perhaps a rather
massy sounding low bass. Not quite tubby or deadish... hard to explain
that sound tho I have heard it on many M's. Certainly not a well defined
tone down there.

But I was struck by and large how such a piano having lived the life
this obviously must have, could remain in such fine acoustic shape. It
was sold in Christiana... Oslo (before 1925), transported across the
country (probably some 40 years ago according to the present owners, and
moved around several times. Our climate here in Norway ranges from 
around 75 % rh in the summer to around 20 - 25 % in the winter. Not the
worst of extremes. But then winters here in years gone by houses were
heated by wood or coke stoves, which further dried out the already dry
winter air. 

Actually, compared to an awfull lot of brand new instruments I hear...
this old lady sounded really nice indeed.

RicB




-- 
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html