Steingraeber & Sons
| Steingraeber & Sons KG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Limited partnership |
| founding | 17th August 1852 |
| Seat | Bayreuth , Germany |
| Branch | Grand piano, pianos |
| Website | www.steingraeber.de |
The piano manufacturer Steingraeber & Sons is a major German manufacturer of upright pianos and wings .
The family business is based in the historic Steingraeber house in Bayreuth . Udo Schmidt-Steingraeber leads the family business in the sixth generation.
history
The forerunner of the company was a family of harpsichord makers in Thuringia , who later settled as an instrument maker in Neustadt an der Orla . Eduard Steingraeber, born in 1823, first apprenticed to his uncle Gottlieb Steingraeber in Neustadt an der Orla. During his traveling years he worked in Vienna for the piano maker Nannette Streicher , daughter of the well-known Augsburg piano maker Andreas Stein. There he was allowed to accompany Franz Liszt on his tours and look after the pianos and grand pianos, which he regularly demolished at his concerts.
1852 founded Eduard Steingraeber in Bayreuth the Pianofortefabrik Steingraeber . In 1871 Steingraeber bought the so-called Liebhardtsche Palais in Friedrichstrasse and made it the company's headquarters. Since then it has been called the Steingraeber House. The company quickly developed into the largest Bavarian piano factory. Since the beginning of the Bayreuth Festival in 1876, Steingraeber has also been a supplier to the Festival and the Wagner family. In 1881 Richard Wagner commissioned the building of the so-called Grail Bell Piano , which was used in the temple scenes of the Parsifal opera .
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In times of mass production , the somewhat more than 30 employees, including 12 piano makers, von Steingraeber specialized in the still predominantly manual production of quality pianos. For example, solid wood and no chipboard are used for the housing. Shellac and wax are also used as an alternative to polyester and synthetic resin paints when treating the housing surfaces . Efforts have been made to find technical solutions that make it easier for wheelchair users to play the piano, in particular to enable them to functionally replace the operation of the pedals.
About 40 pianinos and 70 grand pianos are currently produced each year; since the company was founded there have been over 40,000 grand and upright pianos.
developments
At the Frankfurt Musikmesse 2008 the new grand piano model with a length of 232 cm was presented, as well as a grand piano with a carbon soundboard . The purpose of such a construction is to increase the stability of the tuning of instruments that are exposed to extreme climatic fluctuations, for example grand pianos that are in the tropics or are played at open-air concerts.
The mechanics of the left pedal are expanded: If you step on the left pedal, this causes the usual displacement of the mechanics. If you step further on the pedal, the hammers are raised closer to the strings, similar to the pianino. This makes playing in extreme pianissimo easier.
Steingraeber has developed an alternative way of guiding the strings over the bridge, based on considerations that had already been implemented on a trial basis. Usually the strings are zigzagged over the bridge by two bridge pins. In the alternative with roller-bridge clamps, the string is pressed onto the bridge from above by a metal roller. In addition, the string pressure can be adjusted using a height-adjustable attachment pin. The underlying idea behind this construction is an even string pressure on the bridge and thus better energy transfer, and due to the fact that there is no great friction between the strings and the bridge pins, optimized tunability and tuning. For the time being, these special features will not flow into the production of sashes as standard, but can be ordered as an option at an additional cost. At Steingraeber, instead of the normal, leather-covered hammer roll of the wing mechanism, a ball bearing is also available. This enables a lower-friction release of the ram and an improvement in the repetition.
Instead of a spring, the jack on pianinos is brought back into its engaged position after being triggered by magnets built into the tip of the jack and the butt of the hammer. This system is maintenance-free and causes a more precise and faster repetition.
Models
Pianinos are manufactured in sizes 122 and 130 centimeters high; At 138 centimeters, Steingraeber can also deliver what is currently (as of 2013) the largest upright series piano. The lengths of the wings are 170, 192, 212, 232 and 272 centimeters.
Steingraeber also delivers raw grand pianos with the carbon soundboard and roller bridge clamps to England, where they are modified in the piano manufacture of the Hurstwood farm and then sold under the Hurstwood label.
Web links
- http://www.steingraeber.de
- http://www.studiobuehne-bayreuth.de
- http://www.steingraeber.de/deutsch/steingraeber_im_bayerischen_rundfunk_357.html
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Kurt Herterich: In historical Bayreuth . Verlag Ellwanger, Bayreuth 1998, ISBN 3-925361-35-9 .