Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Metro area with the best Steinway dealer technicians

We all know that Steinway leaves a great chunk of the finishing work on their pianos to the local technicians at the dealers. What metropolitan area, to the best of your knowledge, has the most capable technicians that will translate to (on average) good final pianos on the dealer showroom? I assume New York City is on the top of the list.

Obsessed, "We all know..."

I never knew that. What proof do you have that they leave a lot of work to the local dealers? Exactly what work do they leave?

Thank you / Steve

Fact or "fake news"? Does "I've heard that..." make it fact?

Regards,

I was directing my question towards the more experienced members of the PW forum, who have more contact and experience with different technicians of different areas in the US. There has been a consensus that historically, Steinways leave the NY factory needing more-than-average final voicing and regulation that is done at the dealers after they arrive. The factory has increased its work recently, but the work done at the dealer is still more than, say, that done at Steinway dealers in Germany.

You are assuming the best available technician will be working on all of the pianos in a given store's inventory. The vast majority of the time, that is not the case. I'm pretty sure at Steinway Hall NYC, for example, the more inexperienced technicians have to work on the vertical pianos first. On the other hand, good C&A techs are pretty busy and harder to book.

I understand the variability of personnel working on the pianos. I was asking more of the "regular technicians" who tunes most of the pianos, most of the time. (By that I mean a plurality of pianos) I'm sure C&A techs go wherever artists go, but were I to look at a metro area without any special Steinway artists coming over, where can I expect relatively best prep? I live around the DC area, so I'm not sure if you or anyone else for that matter can comment on DC Steinway dealers.

Is the reason for your question that you are shopping for a Steinway and you are wondering where to find well prepped ones to try out? I went shopping for a B recently, and I was surprised by the prep quality of the Bs at my local dealer. They were really good, and I was told that they come in needing far less prep than they used to. From what I've been hearing from multiple sources, they are coming out of the NY factory very well prepped these days in general.

I'm just wondering: I'm not in the market for one right now, I'm curious about it.
Where did you play that B? What you were told might not match what you experience, or what others experience for that matter

I bought a Steinway baby grand from Steinway Hall in May. NY Steinways come needing a lot of work. That is a fact. This is partially because of where they stop in the process and partially because NY Steinways are more versatile or malleable than a lot of other high end pianos (this is so very much so even compared to Hamburg Steinways). Those two things are related. I have had at least 35 hours put into my piano since I bought it making it what I want to be and the technician is coming back tomorrow to work on it again. The fact that they need a lot of work is the reason I prefer them to other pianos. A great Hamburg Steinway will sound like a Hamburg Steinway. A NY Steinway will sound like anything you want it to if they work on it enough. The technicians are a mixed bag. By all accounts, the very best is the guy who prepares the pianos for concerts in the area. His name escapes me but he is impossible to get. They don't have any or hardly any technicians on staff anymore but they rely on a few and they recommend others who used to be staff technicians. The one they like the best is extremely unreliable and will miss appointments if Steinway snaps its fingers at her. A few others they recommended were downright awful. I finally relied on the refinisher they use when he came to repair a few scratches to recommend one and I am happy with him. I would say that NY would have to be at the top of the list, but that doesn't make it good.

What I'm saying is that the work will not be done by the dealer either. The work is done after you get it home. When I bought my piano it wasn't particularly good but I could feel what it could be. That was pretty much every piano I played that day, which included uprights and Bs, although they did make the NY B sound a lot like the Hamburg B they had, probably on purpose.

Holy smokes! At a rate that I'm guessing is >$100/hr, that's a lot of prep money after paying a lot to being with. Would need to keep than in mind with budgeting...

Was this an S or an M?

Well not everybody is as picky as I am. Plus I play it 4-6 hours a day. I can't say I'm happy with that completely. A lot of that probably could have been taken care of at the factory. But I really prefer the NY Steinway to anything else so I have to do what I have to do.

I live in a small NYC apartment. It was an S. I'm having it shipped to Italy when I move, but if I can buy a bigger place I will have to see what I want to do then.

I will add the first 10 hours or so of work were done by the preferred Steinway technician at no cost. Their customer service is not as bad as some say.

So your Steinway dealer covers 10 hours of work after your purchase? Around the DC area, they say you get a few free tunings

I would say it depends on what was wrong with the piano. I was really not happy with the first tuning and there were some things that were obviously wrong that I told them in no uncertain terms I would not be paying for. They were happy to send someone out 2 or 3 times. That was the technician who they love but who cancels at the drop of a hat. When I was ready to start paying out of pocket I looked for someone else. When you spend that much money they are pretty nice. LOL.

When I bought my piano, I was convinced that I preferred a "European" sound to the Steinway sound, and I made my ultimate selection accordingly.

I confess that, while I still love the sound of my own piano (my favorite of any that I've ever played), the Steinway sound has grown on me too.

A lot of patience is required to do what oldpianoboy is doing. I don't have that patience.

If I ever decided to get a Steinway, I would look for one in the resale market that already had the sound I wanted. But perhaps that's easier said than done!

The DC area is fortunate to have a number of highly skilled piano technicians. Finding a good technician is just as important as finding the Steinway that sounds good to you from the get go. I agree wth ClasscLib i would first focus on the resale market if I was looking for a Steinway.

BTW Claaclib, if you ever start looking for a Steinway I hope you have room for two grand pianos because I can't see you giving up your Steingraeber.

Rich D.

Of the top of your head, are there any other areas with highly skilled technicians? I assume DC has skilled ones because lots of people perform at the Kennedy Center and other capital venues, which calls for skilled technicians to center around the DMV.

In addition, what metro area has the lowest average price?

Rich D, not only am I not giving it up, I've made plans for my own version of a Viking funeral!

Greetings,
Yes, the brand needs, more often than many, final details taken care of after the factory ships. Whether you are in an area that is above average in this respect is more dependent on the willingness of the dealer pay for the prep the pianos HAVE to have to deliver the Steinway experience than it will be on the individual tech. There are only a few sane ones, the rest of us are square pegs, and living inside pianos makes a lot of us a little finicky, some of us fickle, and far too many feckless.

A new Steinway is best viewed holistically first. What is the major shortcoming that needs to be addressed first? These are factory products, and they are non-standard. In fact, they set the standard for non-standard in the piano world, imho. The string level will be uneven after all the early tuning, so don't try to voice it until the hammer/string mating is finalized. The floor regulation will not only be somewhat erratic, but it will usually favor dependability over sensitivity, i.e. you will have more spring than needed, the jacks will be well under the knuckles, repetitions set so safely that you may even have a little lost motion. If you want that silky, quicksilver, magic in the action, play it hard for six months and then be ready to spend $ 1,500-2000 on an experienced tech. It will take a couple of days, but the response improvement should last for five or more years.

Key bushing is often woefully uneven, pinning will be all over the map, and depending on one's philosophy, certain things like vertical hammer travel vs even spacing will have to be considered. The dampers will work beautifully, as a rule. However, there is often so much side pressure on the bushings to achieve that alignment with less than perfect bends, that the dampers will wear their way to poor alignment in the first year or two. ALL front key pins should be checked for nicks, (caused by a spacing tool), which will ruin the bushings in short order.

A big question is how big are the hammers, and how much lead is in the key. These are critical to how the action feels, and in a production setting, are often arrived at by compromising rather than custom fitting parts. Hence, you may have excessive lead because of a geometry problem, a friction problem somewhere else, or a mass problem at the hammer. You may play one that has small hammers and is light and bright. It is better to play many examples until you find one that feels right to you rather than to buy one expecting to change it to suit you.
regards,

Mr.Foote, thank you for an unforgettable, detailed, helpful response. still looking for a technician locally who can pinpoint details that need addressing for our 1919 Mason & Hamlin who also works with well temperaments.

Ed, how well prepped are the Steinways in the factory? Not the C&A ones, but the ones where you can choose from if you take a trip to the factory to select a piano not at dealerships.