Problems with new Steinways

[David Love]

Steinway has, unfortunately, not raised the bar high enough in terms of
quality control for pianos and parts leaving the factory.  The range of what
is acceptable is fairly broad and includes everything from friction in the
flanges, touch weight, proper terminations and soundboard response.  They
depend a lot on the dealers for proper preparation.  The things the dealers
must address can be extensive.  This inherent conflict, spoken or unspoken,
between who is ultimately responsible and who pays for the remedy hurts the
customer in the long run.  I don't have a lot of opportunity to carefully
examine Steinways on the showroom floor lately, though I did spend some time
in years past doing some prep work.  Now, I am usually called by the
customers directly when satisfaction can't be gained through the normal
channels or when there are questions that are not answered to their
satisfaction.  My most recent experiences have been with leakage through the
capo bar, poor regulation, heavy actions, sloppy bridge work, sloppy pinning
(too tight or too loose in all areas of the piano-hammer flanges, dampers,
guide rails) loose drop screws and noisy backchecks. (Things like
unpredictable soundboard response I consider to be an inherent problem in
the bellying process that is used so it's hard to comment on that, at least
here.)  The pinning and drop screw problem was remedied fairly easily but
required a number of hours at the expense of the dealer.  To their credit,
in this case, they were conscientious enough to cover the costs.  The
backcheck noise which I wrote about awhile ago was first addressed by
putting liquid lanolin on the backchecks at the recommendation of a few
people, including Steinway.  While it did immediately reduce the noise
(chiffing-as Ron N described-which sounds like clicking and rattling with
certain types of touch), which did also let me know that, indeed, the
backchecks were the source of the noise, the noise returned within a couple
of months.  Smoothing the backchecks (another recommendation) produced no
improvement.  The problem seems to be related to the backcheck material
itself.  When compared with a Renner backcheck simply by running your finger
over the leather (or synthetic material that Steinway also uses) the noise
difference is pronounced.  Using the Renner backchecks to replace a couple
of backchecks in the piano on some of the most offensive notes produced an
immediate improvement.  While Steinway has agreed to send a new set of their
own backchecks for replacement, I am reluctant to replace the offending
backchecks with similar ones.  My recommendation has been to replace them
with the Renner backchecks and I'm waiting to see what the decision is.
Regulation problems are easily solved.  Heavy action problems require more
serious interventions and I have done a few of these at the expense of the
customer (not covered by warranty).  

 

In my opinion, the problems that exist need to be understood in terms of the
division between what is expected by each party.  Manufacturing problems
fall under the responsibility of the factory, preparation problems to the
dealer.  There is a fair amount of grey area, however, where manufacturing
lapses are expected to be taken care of by preparation or, where the problem
is grey enough that it can be passed on as "within the range of normal".
Whether there is an unwillingness on each side to discuss the issues and
find solutions which will benefit the consumers, I can't say.  But on the
surface, it appears that those discussions are not taking place, or, if they
area, they are not productive.  

 

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Erwinspiano at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 7:38 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: Problems with new Steinways

 

  Dave/ Ron

   I'll Have Trix type it up so it's e-mail  able.  It's short so it
shouldn't take too long.

  Dale

Dale:

 

Could you send me a copy of that warranty?  I have wanted to see one for a
long time but it seems these are classified.

 

dave

 

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