Help with Steinway Model..

[Bill Ballard]

At 11:22 AM -0500 11/16/03, Phil Bondi wrote:
>If I have a chance to go back tomorrow and see this piano again, is 
>there any way to better define what model this piano is? Is there a 
>place to look..underneath..on the plate..in the action cavity..that 
>might help the 'better informed' reading this thread to help me 
>determine what model this piano really is?

You know how to tell an A: they were all 20-bass. There is however a 
slight chance that it's a precursor to the O. About eight years ago, 
an O in apparently original condition - with a transitional bridge - 
came through the local Steinway agency, up north of me. I should have 
taken an afternoon off and studied the thing in great detail. It was 
definitely an O (I even seem to remember reading that on the original 
factory plate lettering), and it definitely had a transitional 
bridge, with not the usual wide gap between long and transitional 
bridges as done by all the makers back then, but set much closer to 
the long bridge as Knabe used to do.

It might be worth a phone call to Frederick Johnson Pianos to find 
out who they sold this hybrid O to, which technician has been taking 
care of it since, and whether they made up their mind as to whether 
this experiment was done at the factory or later.

Lay a tape measure on the case, also check to see whether the bass 
bridge is straight or curved. If you've dated the piano, there must 
be a serial #, in which case you can call Steinway for historical 
info.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"May you work on interesting pianos."
     ...........Ancient Chinese Proverb
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