Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum When did veneering the insides of pianos become a thing?

I’ve noticed a lot of newer grands (including my own) have veneers on the interior of the body. On the other hand, most older grands I see have the interior matched to the exterior.

Is this a recent fashion trend, or has something changed that made constructing them this way easier? E.g., have wood veneers gotten cheaper or easier to work with? Is there any advantage one way or another? Does finish affect resonance like it does with smaller string instruments?

Example:

American ebony-finish grands were pretty much the only ones who did not finish the inner rims in clear veneers for a long time. It is just a decorative style.

It has no effect on the tone or resonance of the instrument. There’s typically veneer under the black finish anyway, so it’s entirely a decorative thing…

I’m not sure exactly when the trend started. In the old days you’d typically see the nicer veneers on the outside of the case, and the inner rim might use something a little more plain. And of course black pianos were just black all over.

I think the newer trend probably comes from the fact that black pianos are just easier to sell/resell these days. It goes well with everything, etc.. So if you want to spice up the look with some nice wood veneer, it’s safer to put it on the inner rim or the fallboard, where it won’t run the risk of (gasp!) not matching the floors or furniture. That’s my theory anyway. I think it looks rather nice at any rate.

Edit after seeing BDB’s post: Maybe it was always a thing in Europe.

At this point, are there any manufacturers left who DON’T put a veneer on the inside of the rim, other than Mason & Hamlin? American-made Steinways started using a veneer a few years ago, and American-made Baldwin are extinct, so I think M&H may be the only holdout left.

Steinway started it in the 1960s

I gotta say, the standard veneers in the Faziolis, Shigeru, and Estonia, are stunning.

Maybe not in NY? I don't remember seeing this as a feature until the various European brands started to become more visible.

During the '70s, I had a pair of black Stride Rite dress shoes with brown leather edges to the soles and brown wooden heels. The brown inner piano rims remind me of those tacky shoes.

I've noticed that some ebony Steinway concert grands have a brown prop stick matching the brown wood inner rim. Is that a European thing?

I've always considered it a European practice that I find attractive, most of the time.

In this case, though, you have a harp and soundboard that are not at all black. So it is much less jarring than on all-black shoes.

Something tells me those shoes sell for $3000 on eBay now...

I think only in Hamburg.

Yamaha started doing it ~1984. To my knowledge, it was first done because it was highly practical.

During manufacturing, the cast iron plate will come in and out of the piano several times (at least this is true for handmade instruments). Since hoists are used, it's easy to mar the inner rim finish (any slight angle or twisting of the plate can cause contact with the rim). When makers went to polish finishes, black inner rims were typically satin or certainly less polished because of the manufacturing process. Any marring might just get a light rubout, but I often see these flaws left from the factory.

A stained, open pore veneer is surprisingly easy touch up with just a dab of stain. It does give a nice finishing touch to remind customers the rim is wood even as modern, high polish finishes smoothed out the surface to a mirror. Mahogany is by far the most common choice used on polish ebony grands from dozens of makers.

Over time, makers have used that as an added element of style or even a signature for some. Estonia, for example, previously used Karelian Birch burl on only their largest models, but now it is the standard inner rim veneer on standard polish ebony models of all sizes. Bösendorfer previously used (mostly) Mahogany, but now uses Pommele. Seiler uses Mahogany on most of their models (GS, ED, SE), but on the 2 largest (SE242, SE278CO), the recent default choice is also Karelian Birch burl. I believe Fazioli defaults to a figured cut of birdseye Maple. I believe that is also true of current Shigeru Kawai models. Grotrian defaults to a red-stained, traditional-cut birdseye Maple.

The irony is now many of the highly decorative inner rim veneers are now fully finished so makers have to pad and more carefully handle the hoists again.

I do believe the practice started in Europe, but I don't know which maker to give credit for their approach to this problem and their contribution to the style.

If anyone else wants to share some of these lovely inner rim variations, I'll start.

Karelian Birch Burl (Estonia L190)

Here is a traditional cut of birdseye Maple from the inner rim of an Shigeru Kawai SK7. Earlier SK's had mahogany, originally horizontal grain like in your Seiler, and later vertical grain before changing to the birdseye. That change happened over ~15 years.


Here is an image from one of the very first SK2's ever produced.


This image is from a Grotrian 192. Also a traditional cut of birdseye Maple, stained red. You can see the similarity in the grain pattern to the SK7 image, but the choice of stain color really changes the look.

Did they start that early on the larger grands? We had a 1969 Hamburg model O that still had the black inner rim.

I'm not exactly sure. I remember that we had a 1969 Steinway B in Arbroath in the theatre, and it had a veneered rim, and the 1965 D that we have in the same theatre also has a veneered rim. The D was rebuilt but the cabinet was restored to its original spec so the veneer is original.

I've seen other Hamburg Steinways from that time that didn't have it. I'm quite sure a friend of mine has a D from 63 or 65 that doesn't have it. Pizarro has a D from 68 that has it.

I'm not sure if it was only on the A, B, C, and D, or if the S, M and O had it as well at that time. Also, the wood-finish pianos were always veneered the same color inside and out. That's probably still the case today.

I did some of my own scanning for images and couldn't find anything conclusive because most listings that age have been refinished. I found one from late 1960's that amused me...the exterior was refinished to polish ebony but the inner rim was stripped to show wood but it was still clear that it had originally been ebony because of some staining. Re-veneering in a plain mahogany is probably the easiest approach and will commonly be done even if it wasn't original...especially since both factories have made it standard today.

I don't doubt your memory, but like many piano changes, it was likely fluid and gradual over a longer period of time. It seems to be standard for ebony hamburg models by the time you get to the mid 1970's.

And yes, matching the inner rim veneer for a wood finish is still quite standard, but we have had a customer order a walnut Estonia and still requested the Karelian birch inner rim. The effect is lovely to me, really lightening the look and complimenting the darker walnut.



What do you think of this look?

Wow, that Estonia is stunning. They should make that a regular option.