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What should you do? Call up techs and get their opinion!

There is a little difference in Steinways, mostly to do with voicing, which may or may not be relevant in the case of your piano. Definitely not if your piano does not have Steinway hammers. Nothing that a good tech could not handle. Even among those who work on Steinways frequently, there are different opinions and styles. But no matter what, you have to start with the basics, and any tech with grand regulating experience can get you that far.

my piano has Steinway hammers.

I have been bad-mouthed and shafted by more than one Steinway tech. I'm not a big fan of their approach and I don't agree with their "high level at all costs" aproach to selling work. Not everyone needs that kind of precision. In my opinion, selling high level work to someone who would not feel the difference is bordering on fraud. I'm not saying you wouldn't notice a difference, but another tech could recommend a basic or intermediate regulation that may make a huge difference in tone and feel, without the extra cost. Let's face it, when a tech recommends that kind of work and high cost, they are really only doing the work for themselves; you are paying them so they can make the piano feel good for them, not you.

As an aside, I only recommend work when the customer and I agree there is some defficiency in performance. What is it about your piano that makes you feel it needs more work? Not just because the Steinway tech told you it needed work. Basically, a piano needs work, IMHO, when you have trouble playing soft enough, fast enough, loud enough, consistently enough, etc. If you are not having fun with your piano, this is a great starting point for you and your tech to begin a great relationship.

Are you having problems playing the instrument, or do you just want to tweak it?

Your ethics are highly commendable, Mark. There is a wild card in the deck that we sometimes forget, and which has caused me to lose a client or two. Example: We regulate the action in accordance with client needs, which we predetermine to be just basic, and price it accordingly. But we're not told of an esteemed friend of the family who is an accomplished pianist - who occasionally is invited over to play the instrument - and does know the difference, and who makes a disparaging remark about the touch just days after the regulation. But this problem may be avoided by simply asking the client the right questions at the outset.

I am not a serious player . I am going to practice a lot since I have this lovely piano now. I want my piano to be brought back up to its full potential. The piano requires voicing, as I can tell from the tone. Honestly, the touch is way better than my previous piano which was a vertical. However, according to the Steinway tech the action need lots of work.

I need to get another estimate but the issue is I only want to leave my piano in the hand a qualified technician. It is very difficult for me as someone who is not in the piano industry to find a technician who has the set of skills to work on my piano.

It really is not. Someone who works on Yamahas could as easily work on Steinways. Just ask around for someone with experience.

Contact any schools of music in or near your area or large churches that have active acoustic music programs to see who they use for piano work. Talk to those techs.

Before hiring a tech make sure it is clear what the work is supposed to accomplish in the way of feel, sound and durability.

Would you mind describing what about the sound you want remedied in the tone? Then maybe we can direct you about service techniques that might apply.

the tone in the tenor area is more bright than the rest of the piano.

Is the treble tone full, warm and capable of producing a wide dynamic range? Because if it is weak the tenor will sound especially loud in comparison.

It is just that Yamaha copied Steinway without understanding it all (as they copied the extension lever and make a false ring on their tuning hammer ;)) - and using industrial process.
SO the Yamaha action, despite its exactly similar dimensions with the Steinway action, behave and is regulated very differently.

A Yamaha regulation on a Steinway is yet making it work at a good level, but more is obtained by knowing well the Steinway touch possibilities and using them whenever possible.


Then another problem, a young concert tech, that mostly worked on recent Steinways in good condition, is not always the best person to bring a 1930 one at level.

Sorry if that looks a little complicated.


The initial quality of a job influence a lot the way this job will age in time. Way more than it is envisaged generally.

You can find pianos that did not see a tech for 15 years and are perfectly playeable, just because the job was done very well first time (and stabilised)

It may take a few visits, there is no obligation to do it all in one session, but some points are more important than others.

The general rule used is that everything is done 3 times, so you can stop at different level of accuracy, and some cannot be attained before others.

At some point, voicing begins to be really easy.

Of course defects are more noticed than on a sloopy job, at some point.

The problems with older models is that modern original parts are not always appropriate, weight wise. A fair amount of experience working on old Steinways is necessary to avoid mistakes.

The ones working in the Steinway "family" use known tricks that work.

And know well how is the tone of a Steinway, this is not something that comes naturally to the piano, it is build, using the instrument abilities.

Excellent parody of a crooked technician's spiel!

"SO the Yamaha action, despite its exactly similar dimensions with the Steinway action, behave and is regulated very differently. "

Hi Olek.
Please could you elaborate on this?-Could you give some examples of the differences in the regulation?

Not publicly, sorry, besides I am probably a crook so I see no advantage to explain how to crook !

Not so rare to find pianists having a recent Steinway and they have always something wrong until a Steinway trained tech comes by.

Always the same things, with letoff and not using the light construction of the action frame at the advantage of the instrument.

No aluminium rail, no massive wooden hammer rail.

Anything is sonorous in those pianos. Of course a lot may diseappear with age but it is surprising as the raise in dynamics and tone quality arise as soon as the instrument is well in condition.

BDB, I am worried about you! You must of had a very bad day to resort to using libelous terms to characterize a fellow PW poster. I hope you get better soon. Love Ed

Thanks Ed. I like the treble tone but it has half of the sustain of a new piano since we kept the original soundboard. I think hammers in the tenor need voicing. But I am no expert.

Wow, if the treble sustain is half of other pianos, and this is because the original board was kept, that is not a situation I as a rebuilder would want to be responsible for.

Were the bridge caps replaced? I have found that a board with a couple of cracks that never opened up all the way to the rib, and that is still tight to the ribs, with well made new caps, will perform as good as new board with well made new caps. The old board won't last as long in an environment of equal conditions as a new board, but it can run for a least 3 decades if kept in a controlled environment.

Bridge caps are original.

yes that makes a real difference, because the string's pressure on the soundboard can be regulated correctly when a new bridge cap is made.

If not treble power can still be raised a bit with strings manipulation and hammer impregnation,(and less aftertouch) but even with longer sustain, the dynamics stay reduced.

I just have read that some part of the tension in the sounding lenght never attain the backscale, there is always a small differncial, that cause the bridge to tilt.

Backscales are kept relatively short here, for better energy transmission to the bridge and also to limit the tilting as possible.
Back scale lenght ratios are kept progressing evenly, and follow the sounding lenght stretch progression somehow. So lenghtening them only on one part of the scale is possibly not the best idea.

I tried couple of Steinways with new Soundboard, the tone was very disappointing. I decided to keep the original Soundboard on my piano.