On this page, we address frequent questions from customers, clarify what is true, and correct common misconceptions about Steinway pianos. Each response reflects the perspectives of our skilled Steinway craftspeople, engineers, technicians, and service professionals — the people who build, maintain, and restore these instruments every day.
Claim: “Golden Age” Steinways used better, old-growth woods, so rebuilt vintage Steinways are better than what Steinway builds today.
Status: False.
A piano’s sound begins with the soundboard. Over decades, any soundboard — even a great one — changes under constant string tension and environmental stress. That is why comprehensive restorations typically involve replacing the soundboard to restore full tonal potential.
Steinway’s standards for soundboard spruce have only grown stricter. Today, Steinway sources Sitka spruce from a single remote island in Alaska chosen for exceptional grain density and consistency — materials selected to support clarity, projection, and long-term stability. This wood is as old or older than the Eastern (United States/Canada) spruce that Steinway would have harvested decades ago for soundboards — and it is, in fact, even better soundboard wood, since it is from a climate further north, with shorter summers, giving us the “slow growth” so essential for the best soundboard material. There is spruce in the Pacific Northwest that would be easier to procure, but Steinway rejects it because it would be considered a lesser grade for us, acoustically. That spruce grows at a latitude and in a climate more similar to what Steinway would have procured in the late 1800s and throughout most of the 1900s. This is not to say that Steinway chose a lesser grade of spruce for their pianos during that timeframe — only that they simply did not have access to this Alaskan Sitka spruce and used what was geographically local and available to its New York factory. It was the best wood available at the time, but today we have access to (and use) superior wood for the soundboard and other parts of the Steinway piano that we did not have available to us in our storied past. Today’s soundboards are superior to those of yesteryear. One does not expect to see a “vintage” piano on the performance stage, and this is why.
Claim: Steinway’s cast-iron plates from the late 1800s and early 1900s are superior to the plates Steinway uses today.
Status: False.
A plate is an engineering component designed to hold immense tension and stabilize the instrument. Claims of historic plates being “superior” overlook what has changed most over the past century: recent and astounding advances in metallurgy, process control, measurement, and manufacturing precision. Moreover, modern tolerances are verified in ways that simply were not possible generations ago.
Today, Steinway’s plates are produced at the Steinway-owned O.S. Kelly Foundry in Springfield, Ohio — purpose-built for Steinway’s requirements and continually refined to meet current specifications. Historic plates deserve respect for what they made possible in their time. But this respect should not be mistaken for proof of anything that nears the superiority of modern production. It is a fact that most of the piano plates from decades ago would not meet the very precise specifications we have today. This fact is not meant to disparage what Steinway did years ago. They built every part to the best of their capability — but they simply did not have the technology at their disposal to achieve the level of precision that we are able to achieve today.
Question: Do Steinways from the early 20th century — or a supposed “Golden Age” — have a warmer, more resonant sound?
Answer: Categorically, no.
This myth has been propagated by rebuilders and sellers of older instruments. No “original” Steinway made a generation (or generations) ago appears on the top concert stages of the world, due to age and loss of tonal characteristics. The single most important part of a piano in terms of sound is (as its name suggests) the soundboard. It is a fact that over decades, and especially as a piano nears a century old, its soundboard loses its crown, which is a vital element that gives a soundboard its resonance and projection (there is a reason so much design and effort goes into implementing this crown). The loss of the soundboard crown is an unavoidable part of the aging process of any piano, and it is why in pianos this old, the soundboard is almost always removed and replaced in a full restoration by piano rebuilders. An old soundboard that has lost its crown cannot get that crown “re-installed”: the only solution is to install a newly built soundboard with a proper crown. Neither the soundboard being replaced (which has changed dramatically in structure over many decades) nor the brand-new soundboard being installed on a restored piano will have the same sound that the original soundboard had in that piano when it was originally built. So, if someone is claiming that a decades- or century-old Steinway that has been fully restored is going to sound like that piano did many years ago, they are being dishonest. In a full restoration, virtually all of the most important parts in terms of sound (the soundboard, the pinblock/wrestplank, the action/hammers) are being completely replaced. At Steinway, in addition to building new Steinways, we also rebuild/restore older Steinways. We are always honest with our restoration clients and let them know that if they want a Steinway that looks like what would have originally been built at our factory many decades ago and what they might imagine from their childhood or family photos, we can absolutely do that. But if your goal is top performance and the full range of modern Steinway capability, the most direct path is to play and select among new Steinways.
Question: Why do so many websites and sellers talk about a “Golden Age” for Steinway pianos?
Answer: The phrase has persisted for generations because it is useful in the resale market. Henry Z. Steinway famously observed that the “Golden Age” was always a few decades back — a moving target that tended to romanticize whatever era was currently being sold.
There are a very limited number of carefully selected piano dealerships that can sell brand-new Steinway pianos (currently less than 50 in the Americas and less than 100 worldwide). There are many times that number of piano rebuilders, other piano dealerships, and individuals who cannot sell new Steinways but often sell used or rebuilt Steinways. Unable to sell new Steinways, they romanticize the quality of their older Steinways. The “Golden Age” for Steinways is often presented by such sellers as circa 1900–1940. This is especially because almost all of the Steinways from this period have aged to the point where they have needed to be rebuilt. The most reliable approach is always the same: evaluate the specific piano in front of you, its condition, and make certain any restored Steinway comes via the Steinway Restoration Center, which provides the only authorized Steinway piano rebuilding services in the world.
Claim: “If you change the tires on a Ferrari, it is still a Ferrari — so changing parts on a Steinway shouldn’t matter.”
Status: Partially correct.
Routine service and normal replacement parts do not change what an instrument is. A hammer replacement, regulation work, or hardware service does not make a Steinway any less a Steinway.
The question becomes more serious when core acoustic systems are removed and replaced outside Steinway & Sons. In a full restoration of a Steinway, the soundboard and pinblock/wrestplank are both being replaced. Steinway does not sell its soundboards and pinblocks to anyone, and these are two of the components that are most core to the sound of a Steinway. So, if you were to use the Ferrari analogy and say that both the engine and the transmission were fully replaced with components made by a company other than Ferrari in a facility not run by Ferrari, we feel that it would be fair to question if that is still a genuine Ferrari. By the same logic, it is fair to question the authenticity of a Steinway that has had its key musical parts (soundboard and pinblock/wrestplank) removed and replaced by non–Steinway technicians in a non–Steinway facility using non–Steinway parts.
Question: Some rebuilders or manufacturers offer warranties longer than Steinway’s five years. How?
Answer:
With any warranty, the first question is simple: who stands behind it?
With a Steinway warranty, you have the confidence of knowing that Steinway & Sons, founded in 1853, stands behind our product and its warranty. When a small company or rebuilder offers a warranty, they often give more years to allay fears regarding quality — with smaller or less respected brands often going to 10 or 20 years on their warranty to give the impression that quality is not an issue. But understanding what the warranty covers (and doesn’t cover), what hidden costs there may be, and if the company or individual who grants the warranty will even be around servicing pianos in 10 or 20 years is a key consideration.
Question: Craftmanship is the bedrock of Steinway & Sons. If a rebuilder has someone who worked in the Steinway factory, can they “recreate the Steinway recipe”?
Answer: It’s not that easy.
Steinway craft is not the product of one individual; it is the product of a finely tuned system. Steinway pianos are built by specialized craftspeople across many disciplines, supported by controlled environments, proprietary processes, and precise tooling that work together to produce a consistent result.
A former Steinway employee may bring valuable experience. That experience alone cannot reproduce the full Steinway process outside the factory — any more than one specialist could replicate an entire institution. What matters is the totality: materials, measurement, conditioning, installation, voicing, and the standards applied at every step.
Today’s technology ensures that the Steinway recipe is met with precision unattainable before. No single craftsperson at Steinway is bigger than the Steinway name and the Steinway process — and all our craftspeople in our factory understand this. The true danger is in individuals outside of Steinway who believe they can do multiple different parts of a process that at Steinway are all done by master craftspeople in each of those very different areas. There is a saying, “jack of all trades, master of none,” which we feel is very appropriate when rebuilders talk about a single former Steinway craftsperson or small group of former Steinway craftspeople being able to emulate what happens within the walls of the historic Steinway Astoria factory.
Question: When deciding between restoring a Steinway or buying a new Steinway, what matters most?
Start with your priority.
If provenance, family history, and preserving a beloved instrument’s story matter most, restoration can be a meaningful path. Steinway also restores pianos and can return an older instrument to excellent condition with deep respect for its original character.
However, Steinway was founded with the mission of continuously improving the piano to build “the best piano possible.” Henry E. Steinway understood (and expected) that the Steinway pianos built next year would and should be better than the Steinways he was building that day. Continuous improvement has always been a part of the Steinway mission.
When you restore a piano, a large portion of that instrument is being reused as-is, so it is “frozen in time.” To think that a 1926 Steinway is essentially the same as a 2026 Steinway does a huge disservice to 100 years of improvement in every part of the manufacturing process. It negates every patent, every new procedure, and every material upgrade. It omits the use of laser measuring and improved conditioning processes that allow for more precision in every part of the manufacturing process. In addition, age plays a factor in degrading every part of a piano (even a Steinway) to different degrees. While the parts most affected by age as well as use (such as the soundboard, pinblock, action, etc.) are completely replaced in a full restoration, the parts that are reused (perhaps after being refinished/painted) are still the age of that piano.
If your priority is top performance — maximum tonal potential, modern stability, and the full benefit of decades of continuous improvement — a new Steinway is the stronger choice. Steinway has refined materials, processes, and precision over generations, and those improvements accumulate. There is a reason the world’s leading venues keep their concert instruments current and maintained to concert standards: dependability, musicality, and performance.
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