Monday, February 27, 2006

Touring the Steinway Piano Factory

This morning I took the Steinway Piano Factory tour. It was just great! I had a terrific time. I wrote about it here. From the article:
We saw the process of creating a piano, from the raw wood (walnut, pear, spruce), to the veneer of all sorts (mahogony, rosewood, pommele), to the final tuning. The wood, like a harpsichord's, needs to be aged so that the moisture level drops to a very low percentage, something like 5%. It is stacked outside the factory in a way so that air circulates all around it. The wood is used for support beans, the rims, the soundboard and the case. The veneer is cut extremely thin and comes from all places like Africa and Canada. It's amazing what they do with the veneer to give the impression that the wood used is one continuous piece. They keep track of the tree from which it is cut and keep it all together so that it can be pieced together later on one instrument. One note about the woods used for the veneer - S&S is a pretty big stickler about having the proper paperwork in order when receiving these rare woods, and don't want to take any wood that has been harvested illegally.

Enjoy!

6 comments:

duluoz cats said...

I have to do this soon, I didn't realize it was still available!

Minor aside: My father's best friend from H.S. (Astoria link here--they attended what was then called "Mater Christi," it's the Catholic H.S. on Crescent between Ditmars & 21st Ave, don't remember the new name). Anyway, his friend wound up working at Steinway and took, piece by piece, over the course of about two years, a Baby Grand. He put it together in his tiny apartment's "other room" and when he and his wife moved they had to take it apart *all over again* in order to get it out of the room!

megc said...

That's am amazing story! I can't imagine taking a piano apart like that, wowee...

Jenn~*Firelight Jewelry*~ said...

Mater Christi = St. John's Prep
I should know, i spent 4 years there :)

Annie said...

Hi Meg!
Graet posting! I need to do things that are NOT food-related for once (I know, its a crazy thought) and this tour has been on the backburner for years... did you just call for info?

megc said...

Hey annie! Thanks for your kind words! Yes, I just emailed info@steinway.com and asked when the next factory tour was, and they replied with a date. Easy! The tour is really great and absolutely worth the time.

Anonymous said...

creating piano is so difficult start from wooden wood and strings, Thanks for the share.


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