1960s Steinway console

[Delwin D Fandrich]

It was a combination of factors ranging from string termination angles to the
relationship between the strings and the soundboard.  That is, the soundboard
design was not well matched to the stringing scale.  Given a better soundboard
and rib design, an improved stringing scale and some attention to the string
bearing points on the plate these are really quite nice pianos.  But, short of
that there is not much you can do but suffer through them.

I worked on quite a few of these pianos -- new ones -- during the 70's and was
always impressed by how well built they were and yet how poorly they
performed.

Oh, yes, you make sure the pressure bar is correctly adjusted.  Sometimes they
were set a bit high.


Del

-------------------------------------------

btrout@desupernet.net wrote:

>  Hi John,
>
> Welcome to the world of Steinway uprights!  I think you'll find that most
> all of the uprights that Steinway makes have a similar problem, along with a
> string equalization that's a real pain along side just about any other
> piano.  (Yea, you put it there, but will it be anywhere even close when you
> come back to it?...)  I wish I knew what the problem really was.  Poor
> bridge notching will give similar effects, but most of the ones I've looked
> at aren't that bad.  Do you think that the bearing angles are too severe?
> Could that cause false string kind of problems?  I'm sorry, I'm not much
> help here, but I think you'll find that the piano you worked on is not
> abnormal for what it is.  You'll not likely get an answer from Steinway
> other than "There's nothing wrong with it."  (which is a shame.  I think
> they are capable of a much better upright piano...)
>
> If anybody out there has an idea of what the root causes of these problems
> are with the Steinway uprights, I too would be interested.
>
> Have a great weekend!
>
> Brian Trout
> Quarryville, Pa.
>
> John M. Formsma wrote:
>
>>  Greetings, List.Today I tuned a first for me--a 1960s Steinway console.
>> What seemed odd was that from G5 to the top of the piano, the majority of
>> the strings (middle ones, at least) had false beats. That, or else there
>> was some other noise that was coming from somewhere. The beats ranged from
>> about 1 per second to around 8 per second. At first I thought it might
>> have been that my strip mute was not muting the outer strings properly,
>> but I tried with the strip mute and two rubber mutes--same beats. When I
>> tuned the other strings, it sounded better, but was still somewhat
>> noticeable in that the unisons were not as "clean" as in, say, a Yamaha of
>> the same size.Since this was my first, are all Steinway consoles like
>> this? If you have any experience with Steinway consoles, I'd really be
>> interested in hearing it. Thanks, John Formsma
>
>