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I keep hearing (e.g., Fine's book, friends, dealers who don't carry Steinways ) that Steinways require a lot more maintenance than other brands. Not just regular tunings, not just initial regulation and voicing, but a constant stream of repairs to keep the piano sounding and playing great.

Is this really true? All you Steinway-owners --- what's been your experience?


Thanks.

Not true......Just Steinway envy!!

Certainly not my experience! I've had it regulated and voiced and tuned. That's it.

Sophia

That's absolutely not true. The comment relates to "prepping" upon purchase. This is because the piano has a larger range to adapt to a user's preference and also the comment applies because of new pianos that are shipped to the dealers unfinished. The dealers finish the piano and get a little extra margin for doing so.

Once it set up to your preferences, it shouldn't be any different than any high quality piano.

High end players usually require more work to keep their piano in optimal playing condition, Tickler. This may be what was referred to, but it isn't just true for Steinway.

Bosie, Bechstein, Fazie, and Grotrian owners that spent alot for their pianos also spend more on maintenance.

As jazzwee said, many S&S pianos are shipped to dealers unfinished, IOW neeing regulation, voicing, and other issues.

I hope that helps. Good posts all.

Your comments are so true, Rich. But (if I may consider myself a high-end player!) we often require that extra work but can't always afford getting it done! (You should see my and my friends' pianos...kind of like the cobbler's kids' shoes...)

(oops, double post)

My experience with NY S&S is that they seem to come out relatively raw of the factory and that dealers choose not to prep the piano to its potential at the showroom. I asked about voicing at a dealer and they said that it's up to customer preference so they don't do it before purchase. I'm still on the fence about that statement.

Ideally there would be many variations of the same model with all combinations of prep that one could choose from: mellow + light action, mellow + heavier action, bright + light action, bright + medium action, etc... but I bet that's expensive to a dealer and they may end up with unsold pianos due to unpopular voicing. Due to the name and legacy I believe S&S has the luxury of leaving them raw and make their customers voice after purchase without losing sales.

The contradiction to the above logic is Hamburg S&S which I hear preps their pianos nicely before purchase for a consistent recognizable sound. Maybe Europeans know what they want more than Americans.

when selling a piano [ss] what would be the ideal prep? is there a more popular "voicing" I'm not a player at all. what would a potential customer prefer? or should it just be tuned?

Hi birdhead, I had occasion to refer to this on another thread, so it's fresh in my memory. Here is a classic thread from the archives on what constitutes ideal prep for a grand piano.

I only have a rebuilt so I have no experience with new Hamburgs. But my tech, who does the prepping at the dealer, says that imported Hamburgs also come unfinished, i.e. relating to regulation etc.

However, the Hamburg Renners don't need any juicing and are more consistent so the sound at least is defined.

It seems to me that people with the so called high end pianos are more exacting in their requirements. They notice it when their piano needs tuning, voicing or regulation. Those who are not piano enthusiasts will let their piano go for years without a tuning much less regulation. Not sure they need voicing you need to play the thing before it needs voicing.

Played my Steinway Grand for 30yrs. with the dreaded Teflon bushings without any major work needed. In the last year or so the Teflon made some of the keys too wobbly for good control. Just got new hammers, action & replaced all the Teflon; ready for another 30!

I just bought my second Steinway. Either I am deaf, insensitive, stupid, or all three. Dunno. I bought the first one in 1978 brand new. Never needed anything except tunings....now I have the second one....I keep listening, feeling....sounds great to me....As playliszt above me says the there were some years (I think in the seventies) where they used teflon bushings. I have heard (even from my dealer) to not buy the years with teflon bushings. But I understand if you get a good piano, the teflon bushings can be replaced....(I dunno)

I think I am pretty picky about my piano....okay my lowest B is a little flat.....there. I've said it!

WWhat many Steinways suffer from is prima donna syndrome, whereby said owner believes that he is such an artist, that his baby requires constant unending care to yield the best result for his "perfect" performance. THe net result is that the piano eventually throws in the towel from the perpetual attention. Extra tunings yield prematurely loose tuning pins. Hammers get voiced up, then voiced down ad infinitum until they finally don't sound like much of anything that anyone wants to hear. Sometimes the touchweight gets monkeyed with via adding lead or removing lead. The games with prima donna syndrome never end, but the life of the poor piano is shortened, and of course the piano gets blamed for not being...(pick the adjective), for the second-rate wacko that fancies himself the great artist. I watched this happen while in college with one of the faculty members with more money than ability. The technician always had a blank check waiting for him to work his magic. Sadly, this professor owned two really wonderful pianos. One was an astist-preferred Steinway D, the other was a Bosendorfer Imperial. The Steinway D was our favorite, a truly wonderful kick-booty instrument, the kind you dream about owning. The games of course began by increasing the touchweight. It was not enough that this piano was good enough for Rubenstein, or Serkin, that had played it and signed the plate. No!!!! The great prima donna had to increase the touchweight from around 53 grams tapering to 40 grams in the treble. What the heck, just increase it by 10 grams. Now no one wanted to play it! Big surprise!! The poor Bosie, had the hammers needled until it no longer even sounded like a Bosie. Still had a great action, but basically a 9'6" mute Imperial. I rebuilt my first piano around 20 years ago. It is a Knabe D. I have since regulated it a few times, and voiced it likely that many times as well. It could stand for a new set of hammers, shanks and flanges. I played the dickens out of it and enjoyed every minute. Hours a day! Heavy duty Chopin, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikowsky, Beethoven. I harbor no delusions about my ability. I'm a decent player, but no Andre Watts. It hasn't needed any major work during the whole of 20 years. I did have a repetition spring break before a concert once though! The wippens are original circa. mid 1920's. The pins are tight, the action smooth and responsive.One of my tuner friends, accused it of being so powerful that it could peel plaster from my ceiling. I think that pianists need to do an honest assessment of their abilities before blaming the instrument, Steinway or otherwise.
John Pels

Okay-my B isn't flat. I didn't want to spend the money on it anyway.

Just to add my highly opinionated and imflamatory 2 cents to the discussion, let me add that in the almost two decades I lived and taught in Germany (1981 - 1999), visiting piano dealers regularly, I never, ever heard an instrument needing "prepping." Not the Steinways, not the Bechsteins, not the Sauters or Seilers, nor the Bosies, nor the Schimmels. This seems to be solely an American phenominum. Shame on us.

My Grotrian 192 came direct from the factory 9 years ago, and as yet, hasn't needed "prepping." It is tuned 3 times a year, and my tech, bless his heart, makes minor adjustments here and there, just like my auto, which gets tune-ups when I go in for servicing.

When friends and colleagues purchased new instruments, they came directly in boxes from the factory, impeccably prepared and ready to go.

IMHO, American dealers ought to be screaming bloody murder at factories that deliver crap to them, and most certainly, never let it sit on a showroom floor in that condition.

Thanks for the opinions and sharing your experiences. You've convinced me that a Steinway -- new or rebuilt -- won't require any more maintenance than any other brand.

Since a Steinway's on my "short list" to buy, I wanted to know more about what to expect down the road.

Which model are you considering?

I'm looking at models in the 6' (give or take) range. My short list right now (in no particular order) is:

New Mason & Hamlin AA
Rebuilt Steinway, models A, L and O

I've played most of the brands I can find locally. The only ones remaining to try are Bluthner and Shigeru Kawai. At this point, I strongly suspect I'm going to end up with the M&H or S&S, but the more pianos I try, the more sure I'll be that I'm making the right choice. That's the theory at least