Steinway internals

[fumbler]

Hi,

At a concert last night I had a good look inside the Steinway grand (well, after the concert had ended, actually). It was a fairly new model with B cast in the frame and the number 535526 (God, what a geek!), anyway, two things puzzled me.

There is diagonal cross brace in the frame joining the two main full-length spars. This brace is bolted to the frame, not cast as part of it. Why? It also is a rather ugly square bar, unlike the flowing lines of the rest of the frame, but that's not part of the question.

On the frame next to the treble string tuning pins are some painted numbers. At the highest string is 13, then going down to the bass at intervals of six strings are 13.5, 14, 14.5 etc. What do these mean? (Ahh, it just came to me, string size. OK?)

Rgds.

[Barrie Heaton]

Hi,

There is diagonal cross brace in the frame joining the two main full-length spars. This brace is bolted to the frame, not cast as part of it. Why? It also is a rather ugly square bar, unlike the flowing lines of the rest of the frame, but that's not part of the question.

Rgds.

I must admit I have never asked why I just assumed it was an after thought by S&S to add strength and they never incorporated it into the casting

But there must be more to it that that

Barrie,

[fumbler]

I noticed this bolt-on spar on the full concert grand when the Elgar piano concerto was played on TV last week, so it must be a Steinway 'feature'.

[Barrie Heaton]

This is the answer I got from a few Tuners in USA

"The brace was put there to help stabilize the frame while the frame was being stored on its side (either in or out of the piano). I was told at Steinway these bigger plates (B & D) are long enough for there to be a problem with breakage without that extra cross brace by just them being on their sides."

" Also the brace get in the way for stringing and damper work on the Ds so to be able to remove it is useful but only when the frame is not under tension."


Barrie,