[pianotech] making the Gen-u-whine Steinway

[Encore Pianos]

I think I saw them do this around 1990 or so, can't remember the exact date.


 

Will

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ed Foote
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 4:02 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] making the Gen-u-whine Steinway

 

 Will writes:  

>>What the factory does is this:  The rough cut pinblock is glued to the
stretcher (cornice in Steinway terms) before the stretcher is then glued to
the 2 sides of the rim.  The keybed is glued in place also.  Then the plate
is suspended over the rim and lowered over the pinblock.  A mini Johnny bar
on the keybed lifts and lowers the plate flange, rubbing it against the
front of the pinblock.  Exit the plate, and the fitter grinds away the high
spots of graphite that have marked the pinblock.  

 

 I have watched them do this, several times.  In 1976, we spent an entire
day at the factory, and my notes say they made much of the doweling of the
cornice and block,together, and into the sides of the case.  An older guy,
with a heavy Bronx accent, as I remember, telling us that squareness was
critical here, as the joints really needed to be as solid as the case to
continue, as much as possible, the integrity of the continuous rim.   

   At that time, and on later visits, the whole front of the block was
graphited to start with, and the grinding was done wherever it was polished
by the flange.  I have often met techs that believe the solid blackness on
the face of the Steinway blocks indicates total contact, who are surprised
to find that it actually doesn't, only the shiny parts are in contact, and
sometimes there is less contact than expected. 

     The underside of the webbing seemed to have been coated, and the fitter
was using a die-grinder to fit it down as the flange mated.  Looked like a
pretty inconsistent procedure, to me.  At that time, I saw no pantograph,
(other than the duplicator jig they had for fitting soundboards to cases).
We also watched an older worker use a 16' long plane and a set of calipers
to diaphramitize a  the soundboard of a D. Easy to see why the brand puts a
premium on "individuality".   

 

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

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