There are probably multiple answers to the question of time elapsed when building pianos. If one considers the time spent from the delivery of the first pallets of raw lumber to the final registration of the completed piano, you could be looking at a year in production. And, if Steinway still air dries its soft woods, you could be looking at an even longer time. My experience was with Baldwin's manufacturing processes. Here are some breakdowns on times: Kiln drying of raw lumber - two to three weeks Rim pressing and curing - perhaps four weeks Machining and assembling of the rim - two to three weeks Machining and assembling the other wooden parts (lids, fallboards, bridges, etc.) - around four weeks These last three operations would , of course, be going on simultaneously. By the time the components reached the assembly plant where I worked, we could complete a small grand usually in the space of perhaps 30 working days - that's about two months in real time. What really suffers when you're going that fast is the cure time on the finish. The concert pianos are processed differently and could take around 60 working days to complete. The real time elapsed would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 months if you count the conditioning of the soundboards. One interesting bit ... by the time I left Baldwin in the late eighties, the total assembly time on the vertical pianos in Trumann, Arkansas was around 13 hours! Sorry, probably more information than you really wanted. Regards, Charles Faulk Manhattan, KS > > > Can anyone tell me, appoximately, how many acoustic pianos Yamaha > produces > > for the world market each year? And, is it true that Steinway > takes nearly a > > whole year to build just ONE D? thanks! > > > > > > Terry Peterson > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: > http://mobile.msn.com > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
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