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New York Production Models
-- Piano Glossary & Index --
Before the rim-bending process takes place, the oak laminates must be chosen. It takes some seventeen laminates to make a single cabinet rim. Each strip of laminate is inspected for weak spots, warps, knots, and any other slight imperfections that might keep laminates from bonding to each other during the cabinet building processes.
Inspecting and choosing the best laminates will ensure a perfect grand piano curve, one that needs no smoothing rigs or other ad hoc solutions (like putty filling) for hiding dips, knot holes and other imperfections. Where other piano builders might utilize less than perfect laminates (it is possible, especially since laminates are sandwiched together, allowing builders to use less perfect laminates particularly for the inside pieces), Steinway has a history of insisting on only the highest quality laminates for each and every slice -- even for the inside pieces where other piano manufacturers often will compromise on quality for the sake of cost.
Next: The art of rim-bending and cabinet clamping.
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.