The Official Guide to Steinway Pianos (Amadeus)

Disclosure: Roy Kehl, the principal author and researcher of this book, was a good friend and colleague for many years. I do not know the other author, David R. Kirkland.That said, this is objectively an important book for anyone interested in Steinway pianos. Roy's fascination with these instruments (as he often told me, and as he outlines in the preface) dated to his childhood. Roy's mind had a natural bent towards detail, even arcana; and this trait served him in good stead with this book. (In addition to Steinway pianos, he was exhaustively familiar with Skinner organs and the Chicago mass-transit system.)The volume is not as exhaustively complete as one might wish; for example, though extreme care is given in reproducing the minutiae of stringing schedules, the plate-casting codes are not mentioned. I have bumped into piano tuners who can't interpret these--usually a combination of numbers and letters at the end of the plate near the tail. Like a silversmith's hallmarks, they give precise dating of the casting of the iron plate (also called the harp). The plate code will give more precise information even than the serial number, unless one is able to dig into the company's actual ledgers. (And never fear: the serial numbers are here, so you can get a rough fix on the year of manufacture, if you are blessed with a Steinway of your own.)This is a minor quarrel with a uniformly interesting book. The volume also contains interesting photographs of soundboards and company logos, and a lot of detail on the model numbers. Some will regret the paucity of photographs of actual specimens of these models (Centennial D, anyone?). However, the book also reproduces the company ledgers showing the dispatching of pianos to John Lennon, George Gershwin, FDR and others.The book, in short, is partly coffee-table book and partly scholarly resource. A scholarly coffee-table book, then. Roy is no longer with us, unfortunately, but his book and his research--and of course Mr. Kirkland's as well-- will remain as a legacy and inspiration.

For anyone who owns a Steinway, and/or is an enthusiast of these pianos, this reference book is chuck full of facts both bog and small about their pianos.

This is a great resource for technical detail on Steinway pianos. I would enjoy more narrative description of how things evolved, but that's not the purpose of this particular book. For specifics on patents, model evolutions, scales, etc., you can't beat this book. It was very helpful for us as we looked for and ultimately bought a used Model B.

Product received as described. Great transaction!

This a references book. a little complex for novice. Thee no prices. But if you understand Steinway. This is a bible book for it.

The Official Guide provides some great technical background on Steinway pianos. This is a "must have" if you work with old Steinway pianos or are curious about how Steinway evolved over time. It is full of charts and tables and much better suited for the workbench instead of the coffee table.

This is such an interesting reference book. It's thin enough to keep in the passenger-side car door for my riders to look at. It is hard to read and I keep wishing there were photos of pianos to go along with the descriptions

Not exactly what I expected...but was interesting to brouse.

This book is mostly for the real stats nerds, or those who need to look up Steinway history as part of their work. It's not really written as a story, or a readable guide, it's mostly just tables of facts. That's what it sets out to be though, and I can't criticise that.I enjoyed the table listing all the Steinway patents, and seeing how the history of the instrument has developed.I would have liked more pictures - mostly the pictures are of the decals and the way the Steinway logo has been rendered over the years.If you just want a readable book on Steinways and their history, look elsewhere.

Great book, however mostly refers to New York pianos, mine are both Hamburg ones.

I hope to find some useful and intersting historic information about Steinway manufacturing tradition. But the book, lacking of pictures and drawings,lists boring technical data of no interest. Furthermore I didn't find any information about my Steinway piano, unclassified in the book.Definitely do not buy

Sono soddisfatto sia per la qualità del servizio che per la tempistica su un prodotto molto particolare.Il prodotto acquistato ha soddisfatto pienamente le mie aspettative (in ogni caso lo conoscevo).