The Steinway Sound

The Steinway is the only grand piano that will sell for more than you paid for it, regardless of how long you own it.

Can you name any other brand name that can make that claim, for any type of product?

And why? I’d ask a pianist to really find out.

I’ve owned several and played many magnificent Steinway grand pianos, so I’d be glad to give you an idea.

First, we have to presuppose several things:

We are referring to new, almost new or perfectly rebuilt instruments only. We are referring to grand pianos of the New York Steinway type, not the Hamburg models. We are referring only to grand piano models L (5’11”) and above. If it is a rebuilt piano, it must have been rebuilt by Steinway, directly by the company, not someone who claims to be “certified” by Steinway.

So why are Steinway pianos the best? One reason: sound. There is simply nothing like it.

It’s not like the difference between a Chevette and a Rolls. It’s the difference between a Rolls and a jet plane.

The Steinway sound comes of course from the construction, and that is the prime reason that a Steinway has that amazing, powerful sound. Much has been written about the Steinway construction, a lot of it very technical.

But how did the Steinway Company achieve this sound in the past, and are they able to maintain the phenomenal record of excellence into the present?

I knew a technician, the legendary Heinz Zimmerman, who worked in the Steinway factory in Hamburg and then New York. He was in 1970 about 70, so he had weathered World War II and had a thick, lovely German accent.

He was an absolute, continental gentleman and craftsman, and quite a character for an 18 year-old pianist like me to run across. Heinz required a demitasse of coffee, “mit schlag,” (with whipped cream) beside my Steinway model A, 6’2″ of wonderful sound.

Heinz had actually helped me pick out the piano. It had sat in a patrician lady’s living room for forty years, slowly crinkling the perfect ebony finish in the California sun into something resembling crocodile skin. But the inner workings were perfect. In fact, I noticed that the hammers weren’t even creased, meaning that it had been played very little if at all. Heinz looked at the piano, and breathlessly reported that it was a Model A of 1926 vintage, the best, prewar type of piano. And here it was, untouched, forty years later.

Heinz knew the piano! He had helped build it (he made one of the many bridge parts, but more of that later.) and insisted that either I buy it, or he would buy it himself.

Zimmerman became my entrée into the world of Steinway, leading to my visits to the famous NYC basement rooms in the early 1980s, where I was allowed to wander from room to room in a daze, playing the finest pianos in the world.

And Zimmerman answered all my piano questions for a decade, but most of all he answered our question today, “Why does Steinway sound so good?”

Heinz said, “Most of all, John, Steinway sounds so good because they never compromise on quality. Each wood piece, raw wood, has to be perfect. They store away the wood in perfect housing for decades. Perfect materials, or they don’t build. Next, and this is only true of Steinway, each man did one job, only, for the rest of his life! You made one little part, and you made it perfectly, and no one could take your job away because you were the only one of maybe three people in the world who could do that tiny but crucial job. We felt very special. Everyone knew everyone, we all knew who was building what, and we’d come and check that it fit perfectly, fifty, a hundred times if we had to.”

Heinz sipped his mit schlag and smoked his cork tipped cigarettes, held in the German manner. He was an amazing, dedicated workman, out on his own for a long time now, the best piano technician on the West Coast for decades.

“I tell you a couple of things, John,” he said the last time I saw him. “Don’t ever get anything but a Steinway. And don’t ever get it rebuilt unless the guy worked directly for Steinway, even now. They are still the same and will never change.”

And that’s the truth. The instruments are still the finest you will ever touch. Here are the models to consider:

Model D Concert Grand 9’0″ Intended for concert halls, to reach to the back row. Model B 7’0″ Known as the Artists model, it was the largest built for a living room. Model A 6’7″ Known as the Parlor model, it was a favorite of musicians. Model L 5’11” the smallest piano with a deep, rich bass sound.

My preference is the model D, but you’d have to live in an aircraft hangar to contain that earth-shaking sound.

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