[pianotech] making the Gen-u-whine Steinway

[Ed Foote]

Inre the Steinway build procedures, Will writes:


 
I didn’t say perfect, I said better than what we see today and a better period overall.  And it is a factory nonetheless.  And they have always done some things I have never understood why, such as the way they fit the pinblock to the plate in the case.   And how they fit the action to that.<<




    The pinblock and stretcher assembly is installed as a structural beam that entrains a "circle of sound".  I was told at the factory, by someone who should know, that for acoustical reasons, the case should wrap 360 degrees around the sound board, but since that isn't possible, the block, stretcher, and bellyrail have to do the work, (with some help from the keybed.  They are part of the continuous containment philosophy. 
   I think the hard acoustical connection between pinblock and case is important to the sound, and since we are resisting the string vibrations in the the vertical as well as horizontal axis, the attachment to the stretcher assists in that. Another reason for them to be as integrated as possible.
 
       Taking that procedure, and throwing in a sand-cast plate, insures that every piano will be a little different.  I imagine that the plate fitting to the block is done this way so that the plate is fitted well on the  top and flange and the block's integration to the case is beyond compromise. 
      At one time, the actions were fitted by people that seemingly understood the whole interplay of caseparts/ratios/strikepoints , but that holistic approach seems to have been regimented out of existence.  
  


 Ed Foote RPT
http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/index.html
 
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