Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum My recent visit to Grotrian-Steinweg (with photos)

To all who enjoy visiting piano factories,

I spent a very enjoyable and interesting three hours last Friday at the Grotrian factory in Braunschweig. Burkhard Stein, the Managing Director graciously picked me up at my hotel and drove me to the plant on ....Grotrian-Steinweg Strasse (what else). After talking pianos for a while he brought me into the showroom where five new grands were displayed along with two or three verticals.

Here he is beside my next piano (yeah, in the next life ....I wish).



He then turned me over to klavierbauer Konrad Blumberg who put up with almost two hours of my questions as we worked our way through the plant. I have lots of photos, but I'll try restrict my enthusiasm in the name of brevity ..... we'll see.

We began in the drying room where the Strunze sound boards of differing sizes were slowly brought to the desired moisture content:





Our next stop was the wood shop where basic wood structural parts were made (I'll withhold the "forest of legs" picture). Here's the rim press:




And a picture of somebody inside the nascent shell of their new piano (dreaming again, I know).



For those of you considering having some bridge work done, you might not want this gadget coming near you.




After the cutting and drilling are complete the handwork begins with the pins and soft copper mallet:



They have three rooms for applying finishes, one for black poly, one for special veneers, and one for strange colors that require the room to be completely cleansed between uses (blue piano, anyone?). The poly room has a steady flow of water down one wall and underneath the grated floor. They use very little hardener in the finish so each piece must dry for around ten days (if my memory serves me correctly) between coats. Each piece must be done twice to obtain one coat and they apply three coats. Here's the black poly room:



I have now exceeded my photo limit. More in the next post.

We're back:

Here is some precision cutting on finished poly hardware:




On to strings. This gentleman, whose name I did not get, is winding the copper around a particular size bass string. They use a hexagonal core in their bass strings. I do not know why, though I can guess that it may have something to do with grip, nor do I know whether this is common practice (or of any particular importance).





Part of the sound board crowning process involves pressure on a still wet glued rib-soundboard assembly.





Lastly, here is a shot of the piano assembly before it is mated with the action. The last steps involve building the case around it.




If you have never gone through a piano factory, it is well worth the trip. As a Grotrian owner I had a particular desire to walk through this factory floor, but if I were in the NY or New England areas I would gladly hop on a Steinway or M&H tour. I suspect there are some areas of difference and lots of areas of commonality. Both would be interesting to see.

I have many more photos


Cheers,

-- David

Delightful.

Very nice pictures. Keep them coming please.

Great pics, and yes, I'd like to see more, including the "forest of legs" photo.

Couple of questions/comments:

1.) Why do they run water down the wall of the poly finish room? At first I thought they were trying to keep the humidity up, but surely there are more efficient ways of doing that.

2.) The rim press photo was interesting, as it looked very different than the analogous photo I've seen in the M&H tour threads. At M&H the rim is exposed and there's just a whole bunch of clamps running around it. In this shot, it looks like this metal contraption completely encloses the rim.

It is interesting to note that many manufacturers (American AND European) who have interest in very specific consistency in their piano bellies use a 2 rim process. (See PD's pics.) This allows much easier access to the bridges, belly, and plate and makes adjustments to bearing, etc. much simpler and easier to control as there is no cabinet to work around.

The notable exception to this rule is S&S, who has not changed from a one rim to a two rim process. Besides upholding an old tradition, I can't think of a real world reason to continue their way of making the belly.

My 2 cents,

Very nice David! Thanks so much for sharing the pictures and I'd love to see more of them.

Like Monica, I was intrigued by the photo of the rim press as it looks different from ones I've seen in photos of other factories (M&H and Steinway) which look more like a collection of really big vises. Did your guide tell you anything about the design of the press?

Really loved the pictures and narrative. Thanks again for sharing.

Quite right, Rich, and I can post another photo of the inner rim with support beams and notches for the ribs. I'll get around to posting that later.

Monica: I don't know if there is any humidity reason for the water flow, but it is in part a way of dealing with the formaldehyde that is used as a hardener. The water flow is contained so they can capture and process the pollutants and gunk. Again, they said they try to use a bare minimum of hardener.

Greg,

If you want to see that rim press in operation go to the Grotrian web page. They have a video tour of the plant. In fact, most of what I have is just still versions of their movie!

I did ask Konrad about the rim press. I wondered how on earth the wood didn't split into shards. He said it did make some impressive sounds when it operates, and if you didn't know better you would think the wood was cracking into bits. If my memory serves, I think I was told that the wood is rather wet from all the glue layers at that point, which makes it somewhat more bendable.

Wonderful pictures, Piano*Dad. Thanks for sharing them. That's a tour I'd sign up for!

If you've got more, I'd love to see them.

Piano*Dad,

What??????

No pictures of Burkhard or Konrad jumping on the bridge????? You need to go back and take more pictures. In all seriousness, Burkard is a pretty tall fellow. When I was there I asked him how tall exactly. He paused and thought about it and answered with a smile, "about 192"

Best, BC

Very cool, PD. That's pretty special treatment, to get picked up at the hotel by the company...

As I mentioned in a previous thread, the Grotrian is the quality benchmark in pianos I played in my search, and it is fascinating to view the craftsmanship represented in those photos.

PS Either you have a rather modest personal altitude or you have aspirations to one huge piano!!! Methinks it's just a big piano...

PD, thanks for the picture. I always wanted to see the birth place of my current favourite baby Unfortunately Braunschweig seems to always be on the wrong side of Germany every time I gets near there.
I had a chance to meet Mr. Burkhard Stein last year when he visited our local Grotrian dealer here in Bangkok. Very nice guy! Did you have a chance to play and compare the 208 and 228. I wonder if my little 192 might one day grow into a 208 or 228! (as you said, one can always dream ).

the reason for the waterfall on the wall is to capture pollutants and rinse them through a filter.

the ceiling is a porous fabric filter. when the finish comes out of the spray gun, fans in the ceiling force air through the fabric, and the air pushes the particles down through the grate in the floor, where they are captured by the rushing water.

the water is recyled back into the waterfall after the pollutants are filtered out of it. the toxins are collected by a toxic waste company twice a year.

the rim is laminations of very thin african makore, and because the grain runs lengthwise, it is very flexible. the glue is actually about half the content of the rim. the rim press boils the glue until it becomes an inert plastic.

the laminations go directly into the press after they are glued together, so they don't have time to soak in the wet glue and become more flexible from the moisture. at least, that was my impression.

I did not see the press at work. The grain does indeed run lengthwise.

Here are three more photos:

This is an inner rim with the notches for ribs



This is another example of building the case around the piano. Konrad is playing the piano before the case is fully completed.




Lastly, there is a room with a machine from Hades that "plays the piano in." Ear plugs are well advised in there because the machine is a little heavy handed.




After many tunings/voicings/regulations the final quality control comes from Mr. Stein. Each new unit is delivered to him in a separate room for inspection. He will send a unit back to the floor if he feels there are any quality issues at all.

David,
Thanks, great pictures and comments! I'd love to see this in person some day!

pique,
Your description of the rim construction is very interesting. Is this a unique design of the Grotrian (i.e. use of makore for the rim, and the high proportion of glue that becomes essentially a baked plastic element ?) fascinating stuff.

Sophia

Thanks for such great pics and explanations.

Nice pictures!

sophia. i don't know if it is unique to grotrian. i do know i have not seen anything like this rim press at the other factories i've visited. i do believe other companies also have a high proportion of glue in their rims--it appeared to be true at steinway--though i don't believe they cook their glue like grotrian does.