"Q" series Steinway

[Mark Dierauf]

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 I recently looked at an older NY B where I could find no serial #
anywhere. The plate had been refinished, and there was nothing on the
keyslip or front rail except 'D104'. I also found this printed in a few
other places scattered around the underside of the piano. On the tail of
the plate was the casting date with the letter 'Q' appearing in place of
the two digit year designation. 
 I have noticed before that starting about 1910, S&S replaced the year
with a letter code at this location on the plate, but also that the
letters didn't correspond directly to the years. In other words, 'Q'
being the 17th letter in the alphabet one might assume that the piano
was built (or rather, the plate was cast) around 1927 (1910 + 17), but
in practice this isn't the case. I have theorized that each letter
represented a run of a specific number of plates, which according to my
limited data would be about 6,000. OTOH, I can't imagine why they would
have done this. Does anyone know the answer to this puzzler? BTW, I've
always assumed that the number that usually appears beneath this
designation is the number of the plate in the current run - like a
serial # for plates. In my 'Q' example, I know that it is post modern
repetitions, that is it has adjustable jack positioning, and also that
it is pre-accelerated action. 
 
- Mark

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