Steinway Soundboards

[FRED W TREMPER]

To All:

There recently were several posts concerning Steinway's soundboard
manufacture.  The question that was raised was did/does Steinway use
soundboards that were glued up by the vendor.

There seemed to be conflicting information in the posts, so I sent Gary
Green, Steinway's Director of Technical Services, a copy of the posts.
After he responded I asked him if he would permit me to publish his
letter in the hopes that it would clear things up.  Gary's letter, in
part, follows:

"Thank you for sending reprints of the conversations about Steinway
soundboard production that was recently on the Internet (E-mail).  It is
very interesting that when such questions arise no one uses the 'good
old' telephone to give us a ring and get the correct information.

"The following represents the correct information about this subject of
soundboards.  At one time, approximately fifteen years ago, Steinway did
purchase several glued-up soundboard blanks from North Hudson both as as a
manufacturing experiment and to help leverage out own "in-house" glue up
process.  The boards were then diaphragmatically sanded, ribbed and
bridged in-house.

"This lasted a very short time and in no way became part of our current
and continuing manufacturing process.  We purchase our soundboard spruce
from the Pacific Northwest from a vendor we have been doing business for
many years.  At times it is necessary to purchase from other sources to
meet manufacturing demands.  as a result we have acquired raw (un-glued),
spruce from the Northeast was well as overseas through our sister factory
in Hamburg.  All material is clearly separated, marked and matched and
not mixed to produce a board.  We constantly experiment and test new
ideas and materials which is keeping with Steinway tradition of research,
innovation, trial and error."

In a subsequent telephone conversation with Gary, he emphasized that he is
always available to answer questions that arise concerning Steinway products
and manufacturing procedures.

Rather than spread rumours or assume something has happened or is about to
happen, it is always best to call the person best in position to give the
correct information.

Sincerely,

FWT

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Fred W. Tremper, RPT
Morehead State University
Morehead, KY 40351
f.trempe@msuacad.morehead-st.edu
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