Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Seeking to understand Steinways tone

Okay, so were only talking the difference in tone between models O/L, A, B, C, D!!! lets forget the short ones. I'm wondering about the differences in tone and preference for tone/models in relation to musical genra's!!! Teks, you know which Steinways work well in certain situations, and which ones dont, please share that info.
Which model/years are the absolute best for jazz, classical or pop? and why?, solo or ensemble? which hammers/wire and voicing technics to use for rebuilding, lets just talk the glory of Steinway tone's, and if you could only have one or two great examples, NAME THEM PLEASE!!! old verses new, model against model, bigger isn't always better, I will never get enough information, but please try!

Cant believe nobody ever replied to this great post!

We probably all think our own posts are great. Whether others feel the same way is a different question.

Hahh?

How much did you get paid?

And O/L are not short pianos?

Longer pianos = less inharmonicity = less crappy. That's it. So, D, C, B, A, in that order, are the best for everything.

If you knew how much Steinway pianos can vary from one to the other-you would see one small reason no one care to address your question directly.

If you're not going to get enough information, can you think of a reason that busy techs would bother replying?

You have not received a response because there is no answer. Each piano, even through the same model series, right from the factory is different. This is a technical community and as such discusses the technical/mechanical aspects related to tone production and action mechanics; the nuts and bolts of it. What you are looking for is the emotional aspect which is better gleaned from piano devotees with opinions mostly based on preconceived notions and pretense.

Greetings,
It depends on the combination. For instance, the tone of an O is strawberry when used for jazz, but when played in a country track, it becomes more wooly. A D, on the other hand, has a concrete and sunfish tone when used for jazz, but a buttermilk and diamond sound when played classically. The A's all share the same problem, and that is acne in the upper registers and fusion in the lower ones, no matter what kind of music you play.
The B is in a class by itself. It's jazz tone is mostly sugarcane with a touch of sky when played softly, and as it is played more and more forcefully, the cane goes to plaster and the sky falls. At the upper volume, you have a combination of nuns and devils trying to herd the chickens into the batter.
hope that helps.

I always am sensitive to people using subjective characteristics. With the technology we have today it is entirely unnecessary. On a quantitative basis, here is a description of the following four measures:

Strawberry ~ spectral centroid ratio >2 for keys 1-32 but <=1 for keys 33-88.

Wooly ~ the cumulative line spectrum map shows 34.5% more power in 2nd to 5th partials.

Concrete and sunfish ~ average inharmonicity coefficient approximately 0.0927e-3.

Buttermilk and diamond ~ the first 12 partials have zero power on keys F4 through D6#.

Using acne to critique the upper registers is completely incorrect and shows a lacking in the fundamentals of facial harmolodics.

Wow! I'm learning a whole lot about them Steinway pianos.

Strawberry, huh? Whoda thunkit!

Does anyone know anything about the Steinway rebuilding shop at The Chew? Simon has a laughing killer recipe for whippened strings bean. Octaves above anything else you'll find.

From one Ed to the other,
Hats off Gentleman, Mr Foote is a genius!

I'm pretty upset that you've given up the secrets of Steinway sound so easily. You just know some rube is going to try gooping Clearasil onto a Steinway A's hammers, not knowing the proper ratio of proactiv to acetone needed to really address the problem.

(I join Ed McM in doffing my hat to you! :D)

Ok, let's give the guy a break. I'll give it a shot.

The tone of any piano is developed with the contribution of many inputs. The resiliency of the hammers is what is most prevalent and the action's geometry/efficiency to drive the system: the scale design and the ability of the sounding board to efficiently deliver a sustained sound which is backed up by the rim structure. Change one of these components and you get a different sound. Some pianos come down the line hitting 100% on execution, some not so close. Ultimately, it's the player's technique which colors the tone. There was a local jazz festival years ago where many piano players gave solo performances on the same piano. Where one guy made the piano sound melodic and etherial, another sounded like concrete and shattering glass. So what's good for what, what's good for who?

On a side note, some players mistake 'technique' to be force where others correctly see it as finesse. Two greats which impressed me, who I have tuned for in performance and listened to, with this finesse were Rudolf Firkušný and Ellis Larkins. There are many others but these two top my list in classical and jazz that have come to this small part of the globe.

Yes. All of this is well and good.
But what about the S ?
Why is it neglected so?

Overpriced and not very good?

The Baldwin-M was always a better piano.

Oh, I was just wondering why - with all of the wonderful metaphors above - the little S did earn at least a peanut.

Franz Mohr's book, "My Life with the Great Pianists" has a chapter that talks about all the factors that go into a piano's tone. Each piano is different, just like every violin is different and you just have to be able to understand how to take that individual piano where it needs to go, and know when you're trying to do the wrong thing.

As far as the Steinway S, I've worked with a lot of them over the years. The scale is a little squirrely, but for its size, I've always really liked them. But you have to have a feel for what kind of tone you can achieve with each different one.

Rarely see a Baldwin M.

Ed, you're a genius!

The elephant in the room is that we've grown up with "the steinway sound" via recordings and concerts. As a result, the public mind, the public ear, says "this is what a beautiful piano is supposed to sound like."