This guide is designed to assist you in selecting a genuine used Steinway piano from learning about how the Steinway piano is built and rebuilt to what makes a Steinway a genuine Steinway to what factors you should consider when shopping the used-Steinway market. This information was collected by dozens of piano specialists who have helped thousands of people find their Steinway – whether new or used – and have also helped those who unknowingly purchased counterfeit Steinway pianos from unauthorised sellers.

Every seller, piano dealer, and technician will classify a used Steinway piano in a different way; but, for the sake of this guide, we’ve broken it into seven simple categories.

One of the most important factors in shopping for a used Steinway piano is the piano’s age. By determining the age of the piano, you will have a better understanding of its history, features, and construction. Below are three simple steps for determining the age of any Steinway piano.

LOCATE THE SERIAL NUMBER

As new pianos are completed, they are serial-numbered consecutively and the number is applied to the cast-iron plate.

LOOK UP THE SERIAL NUMBER

Now that you have the serial number, send an email to your Steinway Dealer (info@steinway-sa.co.za) to find out the year the piano was built.  Your dealer will provide you with the known history of the piano. At the Steinway factory, there are several leather-bound log books that hold the records on every piano built by Steinway & Sons since 1853. As pianos are completed, they are serial-numbered and, even today, handwritten into the Steinway archives which list the details of every Steinway piano built. Anyone with a serial number from any Steinway piano can contact Steinway & Sons or their local Steinway dealer for the information on a specific Steinway, including the model, original finish, completion date, and the dealer to whom it was first shipped. The historical records of each and every piano built is just another one of the things that make a Steinway unique. Any piano missing a serial number, or with a serial number that doesn’t “look right” should be avoided.

Used, vintage, and restored Steinway pianos are often prized for their unique beauty and enduring value. Unfortunately, many piano rebuilders use inferior aftermarket parts, seriously compromising the instrument’s performance and drastically reducing its fair-market value.

For more than 160 years, Steinway & Sons has been improving their pianos. This has included sourcing the best materials, improving construction methods, and finding the perfect balance of the many thousands of parts which make up a Steinway piano. When a Steinway piano is rebuilt, it is crucial that Steinway replacement parts be used in this process if the piano is to play and sound the way a Steinway should play and sound.

A Steinway piano is designed to use genuine Steinway parts, and it performs its best when these parts are used. If the parts are not 100% Steinway, then the piano is not 100% Steinway and its performance and investment value will be compromised.

Non-Steinway replacement parts used in the rebuilding of a Steinway piano are purchased for one reason only: They are cheaper, both in price and quality. There is no other reason.

As you can see, there is a significant cost difference between genuine Steinway parts and non-Steinway or “Steinway style” parts and this is the reason why there is such a great deal of confusion when shopping for a used Steinway piano.

ONE

Steinway pianos are designed to use genuine Steinway parts. They play and sound their best when these parts are in the piano.

TWO

The price of a rebuilt Steinway piano with non-Steinway parts should cost significantly less than one with 100% genuine Steinway parts.

THREE

Most people selling a used Steinway with non-Steinway parts will NOT advertise it as a counterfeit or Franken-Steinway. It’s always best to ask and get the answers in writing.

The soundboard lies at the heart of a Steinway grand or upright piano, which is why Steinway & Sons takes great care in its design and in the selection of the wood used. The soundboard is a critical component in producing the sweet “Steinway Sound” you desire.

ABOUT THE SOUNDBOARD

Close-grained, quarter-sawn Sitka spruce, with a prescribed minimum number of annual growth rings is the wood used for Steinway soundboards. These close-grained lines enable the sound-producing energy to travel more efficiently to the end
of the soundboard. When combined with the soundboard being gradually tapered from the center to the edge, which permits the freedom of movement, it creates a sound of unparalleled richness, sonority, and sustain.

SOUNDBOARDS FROM SCRATCH

Steinway does not buy their soundboards, instead, they buy the spruce planks to make their soundboards. Steinway’s strict standards for soundboard spruce and their yield factor on the prime-grade planks they purchase is only 50%. Meaning, of all the spruce that Steinway inspects and purchases, only 50% of that spruce goes into the making their soundboards. This allows Steinway to build each soundboard to their standards, not the lumber supplier’s.

STEINWAY NEVER SELLS ITS SOUNDBOARDS

Steinway sells their soundboards to no one, since the skill, expertise and machinery necessary to replace a soundboard is only available at the Steinway factory. So if a used Steinway was restored somewhere other than the Steinway Restoration Center, it may still have the Steinway & Sons trademark logo on it, but if it doesn’t have a genuine Steinway & Sons soundboard, it has lost the internal magic that makes it a Steinway.

IF THE SOUNDBOARD WAS REPLACED, HOW DO I KNOW IF IT WAS REPLACED BY STEINWAY & SONS?

Determining if the soundboard was replaced by Steinway & Sons can be difficult to the untrained eye. It’s highly recommended that you ask the rebuilder or seller for documents that include the serial number and state that the soundboard was replaced with a genuine Steinway soundboard at the Steinway Restoration Center.

There are rebuilders, technicians, and non-Steinway dealers who will claim that Steinway pianos built during the “Golden Age” are the best Steinway pianos ever built. This is a myth that has been around since Steinway started building pianos.

ARE OLDER STEINWAY PIANOS REALLY BETTER THAN NEW ONES?

As the late Henry Z. Steinway, great-grandson of the founder of Steinway & Sons, often said, “Steinway pianos crafted 40 years ago are always from the reputed ‘Golden Age.’ It doesn’t matter which year it is today—1920, 1950, 1980, 2008—the ‘Golden Age’ was always 40 years ago!”

WHY THE MYTH EXISTS

There are very few piano dealers that are authorized to sell new Steinway pianos throughout the world (only about 68 in North America) but any piano dealer can sell a used one. Since they can’t sell new Steinway pianos, and have probably never played one, it is in their best interest to sell their used Steinway’s as being better than new models, unique from other used models, or from the fictional “Golden Age.”

ARTISTS DEMAND THE FINEST

The myth of the “Golden Age” is easily disproved. Just look at the concert halls throughout the world who cater to the most discriminating pianists of our time. How old are the pianos you are hearing? On average, they are less than 10 years old. If the world’s most prominent pianists felt that pianos from a “Golden Age” were superior to those produced today, we would not see new Steinway pianos on these stages.