Steinway's patented Accelerated Action®

(Editor's Note: Here is another in our series that focuses on maintaining your piano. This article explains the need for occasional adjustments to the Accelerated Action® on the Steinway piano, perhaps the most legendary and much appreciated of all Steinway innovations. We're interested in your questions about your piano(s). Submit your own questions to our Steinway-certified technicians here.)

The Steinway Accelerated Action® is one of your piano's patented features. It is the most sensitive and responsive action yet devised for the piano. In order to keep it as responsive as it was designed to be, it will from time to time require the attention of a professional piano technician. In normal use the action of your piano will eventually depart from the evenness that was established when it was originally regulated in our factory. The need for regulation is to a certain extent a function of the use that the piano gets.

A piano that gets normal home use will probably need regulation every 2 to 3 years. This is of course subject to individual judgment. Keep in mind that the action of a concert grand is regulated as a matter of routine before every performance. It goes without saying that tone and action regulation are jobs for a specialist. The two are usually done at the same time. Once again we recommend that you consult your Steinway & Sons dealer for advice when you think your piano needs to be regulated.

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, Daynes Music, for advice when voicing is required.

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