Caring for Your Steinway - Voicing
- Congratulations!
- The Steinway & Sons Warranty
- General Instructions
- Care of the Piano's Interior
- Maintaining the Steinway Sound: Tuning Voicing and Regulating
- Tuning
- Voicing
- Action Regulation
- Living with Your Steinway Piano
- Storing and Moving Your Steinway Piano
While a Steinway piano is tuned to a 440 pitch (New York) or 443 pitch (Hamburg), these are the absolute reference points, voicing is to some extent a matter of preference. Some pianists prefer "bright" voicing while others prefer a mellower sound. Regardless of its original voicing, every piano will acquire a somewhat brighter tone with time, because the hammer felts will be compacted as they are thrown repeatedly against the strings.
Therefore, depending on your taste and the amount of use your piano gets, it ought to be voiced when your ear tells you the time has come. Experience has taught us that a piano which receives normal use in the home will need to be voiced every 2 or 3 years.
In the voicing process the resiliency of tile hammer felts is adjusted with special tools and then all notes are balanced so that the tone is uniform throughout the keyboard. This is obviously a job which demands special skills and should be attempted only by a professional piano technician. We recommend that you consult your Steinway & Sons dealer for advice when voicing is required.