Steinway K

[Stephen Bellieu]

Hi Richard,

I bought an 1885 (88 note) many years ago to fix up and sell and I can't let
go of it.  Play it about 4 hrs a week.  What a pain of restoring the action
(every time I do one of those butterfly actions I swear I will never do
another one,  it takes about 5 years to forget).  It has tight 2/0 pins and
no cracks in the bridges.  I haven't tuned it in 2 yrs and while it needs
it,  it's really close.  It is one of those "bel canto" pianos,  it sings
sweetly,  fantastic top octave.  I recently got a little digital recorder
for quick capture of musical thoughts and the piano sounded so good even
thru the digital crunge that it has gotten me really excited about miking it
up and doing it right.  Know what you mean about the bass,  it's powerful
enough but lacks some kind of articulation.  Thought it might have something
to do with the 40 year old strings though.  Someday I'll throw it on its
back and try to see what makes it tick.  New wire and some fancy bass
strings.  It's worthy.

Regards,  Steve Bellieu

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: "PTG" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 2:00 PM
Subject: Steinway K


> 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
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives