The Steinway & Sons New York Factory

Preparing the Soundboard

Soundboards in Storage In the photo to the left, Steinway factory soundboards wait to be inserted into their respective cabinets. These soundboards are made with the best evenly grown spruce wood with hard rock maple base and treble bridges attached. The room is darkly lit with temperatures and moistures controlled.

There are no more perfectly built soundboards on the planet.

The Steinway company has learned that quality in every aspect of the piano making process will not only insure the highest respect when it comes to name brand recognition, but will also contribute to the making of grand and baby grand pianos that sound beautiful and that will stand the test of time.

Next: Preparing the Soundboard: A Sidetrip to the Bridges Themselves.

Text and Photography Sources (Click to Reveal / Conceal)

Photographs by Robert Callaghan, RPT

Textual Sources:

Barron, James. Piano: The Making of a Steinway Concert Grand. New York, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2006.

Closson, Ernest. History of the Piano. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1944.

Fletcher, Neville H. and Thomas D Rossing. The Physics of Musical Instruments. New York,Springer, 1998.

Loesser, Arthur. Men, Women and Pianos, A Social History. New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1954.