Steinway purchase

I have recently negotiated to purchase a Steinway grand piano and during this was shown some paperwork linked to its past.  One such letter was from Steinway & Sons in 1943 and the address of Steinway Hall at the time was 1 & 2 St. George Street, London.  This brought back early memories of visiting Steinway Hall as a very junior technician just starting out in the piano trade.  I remember meeting the legendary Bob Glazebrook who was most kind in showing me around and as I remember it I was left to wander about the huge stock of concert instruments entirely as I wished.

Things I remember from those visits were the large scale letters on the short side of the main rim simply saying -STEINWAY.  This rather vulgar advertising was scaled down in time and we have seen the size of letters on the side of the piano go up and down in size over the years.  I also remember scrounging as much literature and brochures as I could and eagerly reading and soaking up the information on the train on my journey home.

Ah…them were the days….

5 minute job…..!

With so many pianos recently sold brings with it all those little 5 minute jobs that are saved up just before a piano leaves here.  As one of our staff commented not so long ago ‘the world is full of 5 minute jobs’.  Having spent the last two days doing 5 minute jobs I have come to the conclusion there is NO such thing as a 5 minute job.

These points in question are often to do with the casework and in our trade the fitting together of caseworks with all the associated buttons and felt-work is known as ‘fly finishing’.  I have often wondered where this term ‘fly’ originated from, certainly nothing seems to have ‘flown; by in the last two days!  There is however a certain pride and sense of achievement when looking back at a finished restored Steinway as I have done today, the recently sold Steinway model C has been the result of nearly 18 months work on and off and it looks stunning!

A very grand staircase

A recent visit to the Hochschule fur Musik Und Theatre in Munich gave chance to climb this grand staircase.  It was here in September 1938 that the British Prime Minister of the time, Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler to sign the Munich Agreement.  The building that today houses one of the world’s most respected music schools was constructed for the Nazi party and was called at the time of their occupation the – Fuhrerbau.

Dark days indeed and not one that I would have cared to live through and I am pleased to report that the atmosphere there today is hugely more pleasant than what would have greeted Mr. Chamberlain.  But if I had access to a time machine, how I would like to be transported back to the wonderful piano factories in Germany in the late 1930′s.  Here they produced some of the most beautiful pianos still existing and if you are lucky enough to own one of them you will know what I am talking about.

 

 

The old and the new

On a splendid bright November day I made for the lovely city of Bath…unusually for me, just for a day out.  It was most relaxing to mooch about the streets there and take in some of the sights, in years past I had visited many times before but when working and always tearing about there seems to be less time to take in some of the nicer things in life.  My visit today also reminded me of how bound I have become to the company workshop/showrooms and how little I travel around these days.  If you could see the number of pianos being overhauled and waiting for work in Witney, you would though understand my dilemma over this.

I could not then resist my photograph for this blog of the new against a background of the old.  We are looking at the brand new Nissan Leaf, a 100% electric vehicle being charged up while at rest in the 244 year old Bath Royal Crescent.  I feel electric vehicles have to be the way forward and in time we might see more than the single charging point in this historic landmark setting.

New W. Hoffmann for Shackell Pianos Ltd.

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure to visit the Bechstein piano factory and coupled to this was a visit into the Czech Republic to witness the W.Hoffmann pianos being made.  Now at long last I have taken up the agency to sell these pianos, the first one being delivered last week.  We have the top of the range traditional 128cm tall instrument in stock and I must say, very nice too!  These pianos are very well made and are a part of the C. Bechstein group of companies so there is a strong link with the Bechstein factory which is so well regarded.

More upright pianos are on order and we hope these excellent quality pianos will add to the overall picture of our business here.

The Rotherham job.

This unusual view is not one that you will readily see, not even if involved in the piano trade.  The huge steel casting suspended high in mid air is of a Steinway model D concert grand plate.  This was removed today from the inner body of the piano known as ‘the rim’.  We have just started work on a 40 year old model D grand restoration for the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and I jumped down from the driving seat of the reach truck to take this shot while it was being transferred to the upper floor of our workshops for storage.

We have been asked to make a photographic record of the restoration that will last over 6 months, to keep up to date with progress why not ‘like’ our Facebook page where further images will be added as the work unfolds.

The Steinway family revolutionised piano making in the 1870′s and 80′s with their ground breaking developments in many areas of piano construction.  One such area was in the casting of plates and this familiar shape must have been gazed upon by millions of people over the last century and more.  I have never personally seen a piano plate being cast but I can only imagine and admire the skill involved to produce such a part.  The reach truck of course made easy work of handling the plate but I can assure any of you wondering….yes, it is very, very heavy!

Pianos by road, sea and air

A call today from one of our regular piano moving contractors confirmed the collection date from our showroom later this week of a lovely Steinway model O grand that is being sent to China.  This exquisitely beautiful piano will no doubt get well used in its new home and it set me thinking about the vast number of pianos continually on the move day in day out, between not only destinations in this country but between one side of the world and the other.

It is quite mind blowing to think of what this particular piano has been through since it was manufactured in 1920.  Sent from Hamburg to London, then from London to Huddersfield, then to the brand new owner and undoubtedly various moves before it made its way to me.  Now there is much handling of the piano to see it go to London to be packed and crated and then transported yet again to the airport before being loaded onto a cargo plane for its journey to China.  More handling will of course take place before it rests in its new home.

At any one time there must still be thousands of pianos on the move everyday, either by road, rail, sea or air and this particular piano move is just one more with a consignment number, unnoticeable and non special to most but of great significance to the new owner who will no doubt be very happy when it is finally in its resting place.  I for one will be glad to know when it is safely there.

New website!

A fresh look to our the new Shackell Pianos website today, please take a look.  I am always pleased to hear from anyone with comments or views or better still news you might have on your own piano and why you love it so.  Send me photos of your piano and anything that you feel is special about it – all makes of piano are welcome.

A big thank you then to Kelly at Kaydee Web Design for all her hard work in setting the new site up.

Photographing Pianos

Photographing pianos has become part of everyday life in running the sales side of the business and the somewhat tedious work of resizing and editing images ready for the website goes hand in hand with the efforts to have them ready to photograph.  I seem to spend ages looking at them from different angles like a film director making a movie and I’m always looking for that new shot, one not done before.  So I was quite pleased with this one today showing the nice blend of colours of oak, ebony and in the background – mahogany.  I had come to think that there were no more new angles but I guess if you keep looking there will be as shown today.

A most interesting day

A bright sunny day greeted us on Saturday last as we headed down to Maidstone to deliver our Steinway D grand for the highly talented Lara Melda to perform the Grieg Piano Concerto and following this my colleague and I headed into the lovely Kent countryside.  A short drive later and we were at the Musical Instrument Museum, Finchcocks.  Here readily assembled were some of the UK’s most respected piano technicians as we waited for what promised to be a most interesting day.

Thanks to Allen Wright, one of the UK Steinway & Son’s technicians, his fellow countryman Bill Shull, a native of California had flown over to give a seminar on the early development of the Steinway piano.  This period covers 1853 to 1892 and we were entertained by his many slides and images of some of the earliest Steinways still existing.  Bill is a minefield of information on Steinway and paid credit to the many people who had helped him gather this huge chest of information over the last 30 years.

We witnessed photos of the many great patents filed by the Steinway family in the leaping years of piano design, every piano you touch today has something to do with these prize winning pianos and let it be known that it was not an easy ride making what we understand today to be the world’s most desired piano.

Of particular interest to me is new information to my own knowledge that the Hamburg factory, opened in 1880, was in fact only an assembly plant for part constructed pianos from New York until 1908.  It was not until this time that the German side of the business made pianos from scratch without assistance from New York.  This fact along with many others reminds us that you never stop learning and clearly there is still much to take in and absorb in our trade.

So the next time you play, or hear a Steinway piano being played I would like you to consider that it took many, many years and innovative ideas to get to what we have not today, but indeed 100 years ago.  They say the world was not made in a day, a Steinway was not made in more than that.