Steinberg in Kenya

[dorsetpiano]

My son lives in Kenya and has just bought a Steinberg piano from a music shop in Nairobi. I haven't seen it yet but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on it? It's apparently about 40 years old. The climate is fairly similar to the UK where he lives just on the equator as it's on a high plain at about 7,000 ft altitude. It was delivered by pick up truck and the last few miles are very bumpy so he will get it tuned in a few weeks when it has had time to sleep (this is the Swahili word that the tuner used !)

[Bill Kibby]

It's difficult to make any useful comment about photos of grands of the 1900s, because they all tend to look very similar, so you will get more value from the assessment of your tuner on the spot. When it comes to the name, "Steinberg" has been used by so any different firms, including
STEINBEG, BERLIN
STEINBERG (Wilh.) Eisenberg
STEINBERG by ROGERS
STEINBERG, Berlin
STEINBERG, USA
STEINBURG
and this one of many fake names beginning or ending with "Stein", widely used around Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

[dorsetpiano]

Well I am now in Kenya and have had a good look at this Steinberg piano. First of all it has a number 16520 on the frame and a label underneath Poppeliers Culemborg which I assume was a Dutch piano supplier. Remember that a lot of Dutchman people came to southern Africa so it could have been shipped out. It has an ivory keyboard and some of the keys are slightly yellow. The touch is lighter than my Steinberg Berlin at home. It plays very nicely in my son's house with a 40 ' lounge and hard floor and a view of mount Kenya. Any thoughts or ideas welcome.

[Bill Kibby]

I'm sorry, you haven't given us any new information that we can act on.

[dorsetpiano]

i gave you a serial number 16520 Can you tell me anything about the age from that?

[Bill Kibby]

We don't know who made it, there are so many options including
STEINBERG, BERLIN
STEINBERG (Wilh.) Eisenberg
STEINBERG by ROGERS
STEINBERG, USA
STEINBURG, Korea
No reliable dates of serial numbers are available, so the best approach is to get your local tuner to search for clues inside it. If it is German, the action may be marked with the action makers' name and number, and I may be able to date that.