If you're in NYC I highly recommend the tour of the Steinway factory in Queens. You need to make reservations months in advance. It was an absolutely amazing to see the entire process from start to finish. The tooling involved in piano making is unlike anything I'd ever seen.
In 2013, PBS broadcast a show titled Note By Note: The Making of Steinway L1037 which followed the construction of one of these grand pianos from the selection of materials to the final tunings. The skills required in the construction are very diverse and Steinway has employees who've been doing this work for decades. It is highly precise work. As has been said before, any one can chisel away wood; its knowing what wood needs to be removed that matters.
"As I considered the number 600,000, the Fibonacci spiral came to mind."<p>Maybe I took this too literally, but 600,000 isn't a fibonacci number, and neither are 6, 60, or 600. Anyone have a better read on what he means by this?
To me, this is the worst kind of "design". The article only talks about decoration. No mention of music or how the object will be used, whatsoever. Just how fancy the inlays are. </grumpy interaction designer>
Google cache: <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NRjch1bJp44J:www.steinway.com/news/press-releases/steinway-sons-marks-a-historic-milestone-with-the-unveiling-of-the-companys-600000th-piano/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ua" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NRjch1b...</a>
Its sad to see that the piano is dying culturally. If i believe a dealer I met just 6 months ago, Steinway makes less than 500 a year. Its a dying form and its going the way of the dodo bird.
With a european (or at least german) IP address this redirects to "<a href="http://eu.steinway.com/de/"" rel="nofollow">http://eu.steinway.com/de/"</a>.<p>"<a href="http://eu.steinway.com/de/news-events/pressemitteilungen/steinway-sons-600000-fluegel-fibonacci/"" rel="nofollow">http://eu.steinway.com/de/news-events/pressemitteilungen/ste...</a> would be the link for Germany.<p>Edit:<p>Spanish: "<a href="http://eu.steinway.com/es/noticias-y-eventos/notas-de-prensa/steinway-sons-600000th-piano-fibonacci/"" rel="nofollow">http://eu.steinway.com/es/noticias-y-eventos/notas-de-prensa...</a><p>French: <a href="http://eu.steinway.com/fr/nouveautes/communiques-de-presse/steinway-sons-600000th-piano-fibonacci/" rel="nofollow">http://eu.steinway.com/fr/nouveautes/communiques-de-presse/s...</a><p>Italian: <a href="http://eu.steinway.com/it/notizie-eventi/comunicati-stampa/steinway-sons-600000th-piano-fibonacci/" rel="nofollow">http://eu.steinway.com/it/notizie-eventi/comunicati-stampa/s...</a><p>Russian: <a href="http://eu.steinway.com/ru/novosti-i-sobytija/press-relizy/steinway-sons-600000th-piano-fibonacci/" rel="nofollow">http://eu.steinway.com/ru/novosti-i-sobytija/press-relizy/st...</a>