European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 14, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                , i 10 Siel Nway & sons piano factory in Astoria . The Steinway does t come cheap either the Price list runs from $7.500 in $40,000 Lor the a fool concert grand. Yamaha s least expensive piano costs Aboul $2.700. While its concert grand prices Are Aboul the same As Steinway. To has Steinway survived 135 years outlasting an assortment of Compeli lors while keeping its reputation for Quality a Steinway is a Steinway Only because to don11 Cut any Corners says John Steinway 70, one of lha last two family members still in the piano making business. We make Quality nothing but the top qualify we can Mako. My Greal Grandfather started that when to snarled the firm 135 years ago i often say we be probably thick headed and stubborn. We stick o our principles. But it works the Steinway Manul alluring process relies on tradition offers William Garrick an antique piano aficionado now employed As Steinway s National held service manager. Thai tradition has carried on although we Don t ignore  instead an exacting process which combines the innovative and the antiquated is used to create 3,400 Steinway pianos each year at the company s 11-acre factory in the new York Borough of Queens in one part of the Plant a worker hand rims pieces of veneer Lor the piano s outer surface Wilh a 120-year-old machine. Later in the process a newly developed machine perfectly shapes its soundboard so Iii the piano body. Even thai is not a production line concept says Bruce slovene president of Iho firm since Steinway musical properties inc., bought it three years ago. It s letting technology do something even belter than we could do it Belore. One Man still handles thai Job  there Are Many answers As to what makes a Steinway a Steinway the input of the artists the commitment to Quality the Genius of 19lh-Cenlury piano it sail takes a Lull year to create a Steinway concert grand1, the piano by which Alt others Are  of Meisler . Theodore Steinway. Bui those responses May miss the Forest for the Trees which provide the Steinway Wood. One of the things done right Here is we use Only Good Wood says Garlick. We have people constantly looking throughout the world Lor Good  the Wood imported mahogany Northeast Rock Maple yellow Poplar is improved through aging. Air dried outdoors or up to 18 months the Wood is then Kiln dried to remove the moisture and run through the Mill for shaving and rough shaping each piano s outer rim is Bent in a process which appears More Likely to splinter Wood than shape it. For the grand piano it involves seven men 19 panels of. Wood 22 feel Long plenty of pushing and a Winch. Amazingly the Wood does t break by bends into the shape of a concert grand. The process is repeated 150 limes a year on is machine developed in 1880 by . Theodore Steinway. The family s acknowledged piano Genius. The pieces of Wood in the rim Are individually coated with old fashioned animal glue. Ii sets up very fast very Strong. And it s acoustically sound Garlick explains. A soundboard is Cut to the specifications of each rim. It s slightly curved and ribs Are attached by hand two More Steinway innovations. But perhaps the most important function a simple task which determines each succeeding step occurs in the Steinway foundry. Metal plates shipped in from Springfield Ohio Are punched with iwo holes Lakin from the original drawings of Henry Engelhard Steinway known As the reference holes these Quarter inn puncture Marks serve no purpose other than to guide creation of the piano irom that Point Forward. The soundboard the stringing the placement of the keyboard everything revolves around the two Marks it s been the same two holes since Day one Garlick says. In the apply named body stretching stage an employee climbs inside the piano rim and pushes out Wilh his hands and feet before the plate and soundboard Are fitted. The piano action its hammers Felt and other Interior parts Ara painstakingly pieced together and subjected to repealed Quality checks. By the time the piano is assembled wired and shipped to Raymond Parada s department in has gone through 25 to 30 checkpoints. The workers Respo stole for bigger jobs like soundboard placement piano stringing and tone adjustment often sign their work. It s an aspiration of everybody to be immortal and so like an artist signs his painting i sign the piano explains Parada his voice growing soft. I put into the piano the Bestol myself his Alli Lude is pervasive throughout the Plant. Three piano stringers working Side by Side in the Fael Ryuse three different methods to perform their task each convinced his Way is the right Way. We Don t mind that. We encourage Iho Lille rivalries Between them because the product comes Oul  says John Steinway. Who began his career running Wood from the Yard to the lao tory. The unique process at the Plant Means each piano will sound a Bil different. Tho company allows any perspective buyer be it paler Nero or Peter Zero to play several pianos and pick the one which sounds Best to him. The future of Steinway holds an immediate Challenge a frontal assault by Yamaha on their once near exclusive concert grand Market. There Are some defectors silly Joel played a Yamaha grand on his recent album the Bridge and Bruch Hornsby Winner of the 1987 Best new artist grammy does t use a Steinway. While Yamaha made its first concert grands in 1902, they Only recently began concentrating on the grand piano Market. I think Yamaha s doing a very Good Job Hicso Days but it s still not a Steinway says Nero who owns our. Heritage its highly says Bruce Stevens president of Steinway. What Beller link do we have with the past and tradition the new generation of descendants of Henry a Steinway chose dil Lerent routes. 1 none  interested in coming in says John Steinway. 70, Over the constant plink Pink Plok of piano tuning outside the office he shares Wilh his brother. They All wanted logo out and do their own thing we be got a banker we be got a computer expert we Vegol an architect we be got All kinds of things in the next generation " John Steinway can recall childhood dinner guests like Sergei Rachmaninoff and Arthur Rubinstein breaking bread at the Steinway table. His lather often look the two Brothers on weekend Day trips to the piano Luetory in Queens . I got brought in Wilh my Mother s milk in a Way recalls John Silling inside Manhattan s Steinway Hall an Ornale piano showcase museum. I was brought up in  walking around Steinway Hall John is greeted time and time again by workers he s known lot years. Number 237 that s Vladimir Horowitz s piano Steinway says pointing to a concert grand one of about a dozen kept in the basement Lor use by visiting performers. Thai s one of his  Steinway recalls the Day he decided to become a piano Man. In those Days a Job was a Job says John who joined the firm in the late 1930s. My father said if you wan to work Wilh the company line. You go out to the factory at 7-.30 in the morning and Start your apprenticeship which i  three years later he began moving up in the company. Henry 2, became preside no of the company while John handled marketing and production when the inevitable became apparent in 1972. When there were no member5 of the Steinway family to Mova Inlo the business the decision was made to sell. Lbs inc purchased Steinway & sons bul the corporation s handling of the family Trade struck a bad chord Wilh Steinway. We were not very Happy with lbs. As part of a Large corporation Steinway says the company was sold to Steinway musical properties inc., in 1995. It s worked Oul we Steinway says puffing on a cigarette and tugging on his suspenders. I m very Happy because i look to the Tulare and think it s Good. The piano will go on june 14.1983 the stars and stripes Page 15