Steinway Model A Grand Piano Review: 1896 Model

Steinway Pianos

Restored Steinway pianos are something we specialize in here at the Piano Shop Bath. Here we take a look at an 1896 model A Steinway grand piano that we had restored by our expert team. Even at such an age, Steinway pianos can be restored to former glories if they are structurally sound. Rather like vintage cars, top end pianos can remain in excellent condition for decades, so long as they are looked after and given the correct restoration work as and when they need them. We are lucky in having been able to source to a couple of excellent models over recent months, and you can read about the other Steinway Model A we restored in another blog post. When we acquire these pianos, we know that nothing but the absolute best craftsmanship is required to do these pianos justice. We hope over the course of this article we can give you an insight to the time, patience and expertise we spend on getting these pianos right.

The 1896 Model A

This piano was manufactured in 1896, and had been looked after by previous owners. The external case had suffered some wear and tear, but the essentials were all in place, such as a rugged cast iron frame and an intact spruce soundboard. Initial playing revealed an overall good core tone that had retained a balanced sound across the registers. At this point, we knew that this piano would play really well, once given the right restoration work.

Exterior

The exterior case of this piano is a high quality rosewood, which is highlighted by the ornate carved legs and music stand. The music stand alone could be a work of art, with a period style leaf design wrapping around the Steinway logo. This attention to detail in the woodwork is just one example of how Steinway produces piano that are not just great to play but beautiful to look at. Pianos are of course, a large object in any studio or living space, and while the aesthetic qualities should not determine a pianos worth, it certainly does no harm when it is easy on the eye. We chose to have this piano refinished in a polyester gloss black finish by our expert team, and the result unexpectedly gave even better results than we anticipated. The gloss black finish made those carved wood features pop out and highlight their decorative qualities, while the combination of a period piano in a more modern polyester gloss black finish is an intriguing mix of traditional meets modern design. Thoroughly up to date for the 21st century whilst paying homage to the century in which it was made.

Interior

The real work however, happens under the lid.  Some of the main jobs our technicians carried out are listed below:

• a new wrest plank and tuning pins: years of turning the tuning pins will eventually wear down the thread holding the pins in the wrest plank. By replacing these two elements, tuning stability is greatly improved.

• complete restring: dust and humidity inevitable collect on strings and after a while, this will affect the tone. The restring is a major part of revitalizing the sound of this piano.

• completely re-felted hammers and dampers: years of playing causes the felt in hammers to compact down into grooves where the strings meet the hammer. This means that too much felt is contacting the string, rather than the clean hit and bounce back of a flat hammer. This can affect the overall harmonics of a pianos sound, so it is absolutely vital that these two parts have new felts.

Final Tone and Touch

Once this work is complete, the final regulation work is carried out by our expert technicians to ensure that the super responsive action that Steinway’s are known for is very much present. We get concert pianists to play our piano and then give further feedback to our technicians. This is extremely important, because a piano needs time to settle in once restored, and getting feedback from experienced players who know what a good piano should deliver is vital for our technicians.

We can now look objectively at this instrument and say it is a wonderful instrument to play. The tone is exactly what you would expect from a Steinway Model A, with deep chiming bass notes, lyrical mid section and sparkling trebles. The action is extremely responsive to all kinds of playing including fast repeated notes and light touch, soft playing. You can check out our video to hear a bit more, but of course we strongly advise that you pop by and have a play for yourself!