I read Keith's post of a few days ago regarding his experience playing two new Steingraebers with interest. Just by chance I was able to play a Steingraeber 168 (5' 6") at Larry Buck's shop the other day. It didn't disappoint. It's always hard to describe tone quality in words, but rich, full, and balanced come to mind. The piano sounded much bigger than its size, and the tone throughout the compass was awfully good. The killer octave was not sharp and percussive, but the best part of the piano was its bass--I had never heard bass like that coming from such a small piano.
The piano had several design features that in some way must have contributed to its bass performance. It had a wide tail, a generous back scale, bass strings set at more of an angle than is typical, and a bass bridge with no cantilever. However, I was a bit surprised to see a distinct hockey stick bend at the end of the long bridge, but despite that, the tenor break was quite good--not completely transparent, but not offensive either.
