Steinway & Sons Living Room Grand Piano.

  A Steinway is built to be your last piano or an excellent reason to buy your last piano first. Few things you will buy in your lifetime will serve you so long, give you so much pleasure and at the same time maintain its value. A Steinway is a lasting investment. The Steinway model L ebony grand piano is a piano that offers abundant volume yet needs little more space than the smaller models. This instrument was purchased originally in 1982 at the Albuquerque Steinway & Sons authorized dealership, Riedling Music. It lived in a lovely home in Santa Fe surrounded by fine art and furnishings for many years, then came to us eight years ago and we placed it in another lovely home. The second owner is relocating now and sadly, can’t take the piano with them to the east coast so we are offering it for sale. Alexander Boggs is the owner of 88 Keys Piano Warehouse. He is a Steinway & Sons certified technician and has trained at the factory in New York twice and has also been the sole tech to service this piano for well over a decade. Alexander would be honored to continue his service with the next owner after the complimentary home tuning takes place. It is in excellent condition – structurally and aesthetically, and we will be happy to offer a two-year warranty. Because it has lived its entire life in this unique climate it is happily acclimated and well-adjusted. The new owner will enjoy decades of musical joy and gratification with this stately Steinway & Sons piano.

“Strive always to improve the piano.” Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg

This model L features the classic “Steinway sound”, having a strong, singing treble with a clear bell-like tone, a resonant tenor mid-range and a robust bass, rich in high harmonics. It radiates plenty of tonal color with richness, depth and power. It is due to their combination of harmonics that distinguishes a Steinway from other piano makers. The duration of tone (sustain time) is lengthy, enabling legato phrases to be performed more musically. The dynamic range of volume is wide, allowing the pianist to play more expressively and emotively with feeling. The tone quality (timbre) is neither overly mellow and dull or overly bright and tinny. The mid-treble where most of the melodies are played is lively and “sings” and doesn’t disappear under the background of an accompaniment. It has the raw power that most pianos aspire to but not the brash “loudness” that often results. And these are, above all, the reasons why only a Steinway sounds and performs like a Steinway.

2023 model O MSRP – $103,500

2022 model O MSRP – $95,800.

2021 model O MSRP – $90,300.

2020 model O MSRP – $87,600.

The instrument of the Immortals.

All models of Steinway and Sons grand pianos offer a Diaphragmatic Soundboard™ (Patented 1936) where during manufacturing, far more fine Sitka spruce is left on the floor than actually makes it into the soundboard. The craftsmen expertly locate the very best cuts and discard the rest. The Steinway wood-buyer travels across the country to the mills and with an expert eye, selects the very best lumber himself. The soundboard is considered to be the soul of the piano. They also feature the Hexagrip Pinblock™ (Patented 1963). They are constructed by laminating seven layers of Canadian hardrock maple in a staggered grain formation. Each subsequent layer of the lamination offsets the grain angle by 45 to 90 degrees. The result is an even distribution of grain direction throughout the pinblock. This ensures that at least one layer has its grain directly in line with the stress acting on the pin. This technique allows the tuner to place the pin in the exact optimal location for a true “Concert Tuning”. That is the secret to how Steinway’s are able to maintain their world-renowned sound far beyond their last tuning.

The grands also feature the Steinway patented Accelerated Action™ (Patented 1936), enhancing the action to respond to the touch instead of being forced into action. Laboratory tests have proven that the keys on a Steinway can repeat 13% more quickly than any other piano. The same features that allow this faster repeat also provide a much more sensitive, responsive keyboard, an aspect that can be appreciated even by beginning pianists. The keys are made of Bavarian spruce. The quarter-sawn maple action parts are mounted on a Steinway Metallic Action Frame™ (Patented 1868 and 1875), which consists of a seamless brass tube with rosette-shaped contours, force fitted with maple dowels and brass hangers to assure the stability of the regulation. The Steinway grand also features the true Sostenuto™ pedal (Patented 1874). It is the middle pedal and it allows the pianists to determine which keys they want to resonate and sound, and those they want to dampen and not sound.

The early history of Steinway & Sons is fascinating and is intimately connected to the history of New York City.