When is a Steinway still a Steinway

[Ron Nossaman]

>Back to pianos, hopefully.

Thank you.


>Had this discussion the other day with another tech when we were talking 
>about a Steinway M and a couple of proposed changes which included: a new 
>bass bridge, getting rid of the cantilever and lengthening the backscale, 
>rescaling the piano and changing many of the gauges, especially in the 
>upper end of the piano, detuning the duplexes and adding a new 
>counterbearing bar in the capo section to change the string angle and 
>duplex length...
>
>Several questions arise considering recent discussions about patent 
>infringements, though this takes a slightly different angle.  At what 
>point do changes breach any tacit understandings/agreements about what can 
>be done to a piano and still call it that maker's piano?  Does the 
>technician have any legal or other obligation to adhere to the designers 
>intention, or commit any breach by making such changes?  What is the 
>responsibility to inform customers of such changes (say in a spec 
>situation with a piano for sale)?  Or any other considerations that I have 
>not mentioned, or though of.  These types of changes, I realize, are made 
>all the time.  What obligation do we have as technicians in such 
>situations?  Any other thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.
>
>
>David Love

As Wim said, if you perform a major redesign and remanufacture of a 
Steinway within the five year warranty period, you will, as you might have 
suspected, void the warranty. This is as it should be. You are surely a 
different person now, than prior to your having been required to memorize 
the multiplication tables and conjugate verbs. Since this was likely done 
somewhat after your fifth birthday, your warranty wasn't voided, but had 
merely expired. Nevertheless, even after suffering these modifications to 
your basic design, you retained your name and educational dossier.

Since a Steinway is, at best, a proto-Steinway upon delivery, and only 
becomes a Steinway of the required custom configuration and performance 
specificity after it is locally completed and configured at whatever 
expense of time and effort to the requirements of the new owner or 
conservator, one can reasonably question whether a Steinway is EVER an 
authentic Steinway under ANY conditions. Consequently, since it's 
qualification as a Steinway is largely contingent on post-sale, 
pre-warranty expiration refinements to the fundamental product as 
delivered, any modifications done in the interest of performance 
enhancement after the passing of the original warranty period are free of 
obligation to the original seller. The reason being, of course, that no one 
can say with any certainty what you started with in the first place. So you 
can do what you like with it as long as you don't change the name. That 
would be fraud unless you change it to a name that doesn't exist as a 
product name anywhere else. Numph and Sons, for instance, would be 
acceptable, but since Steinway is already cast into the plate, I'd leave it 
alone and just point out any design modifications to the prospective 
customer after they've heard it, and before it's paid for.

At least, that's my call.

Ron N