Problems with new Steinways

[Avery]

David & others.

Maybe I'm obtuse or something but I just don't 
understand why all this is necessary!!!!!! I know 
it is, but I still don't understand it! Except 
for the fact that Steinway is PERFECT! Witness their 5-yr. warranty!

Avery

At 01:28 PM 12/3/2006, you wrote:
>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 
>piano­hammer 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 (chiffing­as Ron N described­which 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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