Steinway Pianos
Upright & Grand Piano Steinway Musical Instruments

The legacy of Henry Engelhard Steinway, the maker of the Steinway piano, continues after more than 150 years since its founding.

By the time he founded Steinway and Sons in 1853, he had built 482 pianos in his kitchen. The first official piano manufactured by Steinway was numbered 483 and was sold for $500 to a New Yorker.

Henry and his sons spent more than 40 years perfecting their craft. The piano company has earned numerous patents. Changes in management and leadership did not stop the company from continuously spending hundreds of hours on research in the quest to apply the latest technology and innovations in the manufacturing of Steinway musical instruments.

The company's motto of taking its time to build a piano still applies today. A Steinway grand piano traditionally took a year to build and that unhurried pace is still practiced today. In this new economic strategy of outsourcing for better profit, Steinway pianos are still built in their Astoria, New York and Hamburg, Germany plants.

History of Steinway Musical Instruments

Over the course of 150 years, Steinway has extended its product line. The company started out manufacturing square pianos and gradually shifted to the manufacture of grands in various sizes. During the turn of the 20th century, player pianos were in demand up until the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Today, Steinway Musical Instruments and Conn-Selmer are together providing high quality musical instruments to amateur, professional and concert artists. Some of its subsidiaries are known brands in wind, woodwind, percussion and brass instruments: C.G. Conn; Selmer; Armstrong; Bach; Selmer; Yanagisawa and Ludwig to name a few.

Current Line of Upright and Grand Steinway Piano Models

Steinway exclusively sells Steinway Upright and Grand pianos. Affiliate budget-brand pianos Steinway makes include the Boston Upright and Grands Line and the Essex Upright and Grands Line. The company also has a line of limited edition collection and Artcase collection.

Steinway & Son is still the flagship brand of Steinway Musical Instruments. By 2000, the revered piano company has manufactured 550,000 piano. Under this flagship line are uprights and grands that are fine examples of Steinway's craftsmanship.

Steinway Grand Pianos for Sale Offered Today

Inside the Steinway & Sons Piano Factory - video interview

• The Steinway Model D is a concert grand piano with a length of 274 cm (8'11 ¾ inches) and width of 156 cm (61 1/4"). Model D is one of the top Steinway pianos on the market and are chosen by some of the the world's premiere pianists. The piano is very expressive. Its rim is made from 18 laminations of maple. The braces are of five solid spruces for tensile strength without extra weight. The pinblock is the patented hexagrip, which accounts for a smoother movement of the tuning pin and a piano that maintain its tune longer. The soundboard is 9 mm thick at the center, gradually tapers to 6 mm at the rim and is then double crowned. This design acts as one piece of soundboard and therefore creates a richer tone.
• The Steinway Model A is a parlor grand with a length of 188 cm (6'2”) and a width of 147 cm (57 ¾ “). This model produces warm but powerful tones because the scale was designed in such a way that the solid spruce soundboard can efficiently and freely vibrate. The bass is rich and full. This model is perfect for budding concert pianists and advanced music students. It is also the right instrument for homes.
• Model M is a medium grand Steinway piano. Sized at 170 cm (5'7”) in length and 147 cm (57 3/4") in width, this model has a responsive touch and rich tone. It is the preferred model in many homes, conservatories and music schools. This model is Steinway's medium grand. The plate is of sturdy iron and the tuning pins are made of rust-resistant blue steel and nickled heads. The treble strings are high-tensile Swedish steel while the bass strings are also Swedish steel core wound with copper.
• Model O is a living room grand with a length of 180 cm (5'10 ¾”) and a width of 146 cm (57 ¾”) in width. This model has been very popular since the first quarter of the 20th century because of its rich and warm tone that far exceeds the other brands of piano that are less than 6 feet in length.

Other models are the Model S, Model B, Chippendale and Louis XV for the grands. Steinway uprights include the Traditional K-54, Sheraton and Model 1098.

Steinway upright pianos are preferred by 9 out of 10 concert pianists, according to Steinway. Who can blame them? Steinway is still the world's finest. Steinway and Sons pianos are crafted at an estimated 2,500 pianos per year, worldwide.

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