Steinway Facts

Steinway pianos have been imitated for over a century, but they remain unique and inimitable. Most of today's piano makers would be overjoyed to hear their instruments described as "as good as a Steinway."

In 1903, a Steinway grand piano, serial number 100000, was presented to the White House as a gift to American people (it is now exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History). It was replaced 1938 by a second Steinway, serial number 300000, made in a mahogany case and supported on three sculpted eagles. This second Steinway remains in the East Room of the White House.

Theodore Steinway engineered the modern overstrung scale, developing the grand piano's rim, frame, and hammer design to create a more powerful sound.

The "duplex scale" was patented in 1872, a feature that adds harmonic color to the sound of a piano by bringing out overtones. The design incorporates two extra lengths of strings that are allowed to vibrate in sympathy with the speaking length's fundamental vibration. One is positioned between the front duplex bar and the capo d'astro, the other between the soundboard bridge and a duplex bar mounted on the frame.  

In 1936 a diaphragmatic soundboard design was patented. This was to allow the soundboard to respond throughout the scale and vibrate more freely. The diaphragmatic soundboard is made thicker in the center and tapers toward its edge, where it is fitted to the inner rim of the grand piano.