Responsiveness. Precision. Intuitive grace. A superior musical instrument can be recognized by the degree to which it allows the player to express vision without interference — with nothing coming between the fingers on the keyboard and the music in the air.

Such is the experience of playing a Boston. Designed by Steinway & Sons, employing the unique patents and expertise that have made the name Steinway synonymous with excellence, the Boston line of grand and upright pianos represents a singular achievement in instrument building: a superior playing experience at a price level never before thought possible.

High-grade, straight-grained, quarter-sawn spruce is used for the soundboard's resonant qualities and high strength-to-mass ratio. The soundboard is solid and not laminated, which creates the best resonance and projection of sound. In 1936, Steinway patented the diaphragmatic soundboard, which was designed to be thicker in the middle and gently tapered to the edges. The Boston soundboard has tapered thickness from bass to treble. A thinner soundboard in the bass area vibrates more freely, resulting in a richer, fuller tone. 

Boston backposts are massive — providing a solid foundation for the resonating soundboard and tensioned vibrating strings, thus helping create a beautiful tone. Boston backpost locations are staggered — located where the string tension is greatest, instead of neatly equidistant. Massive staggered backposts help provide superb tone and maximum stability, ensuring the piano will last, tunings will be more stable, and piano tone will be enhanced for the years and decades to come.

A low tension string scale design gives a fuller, richer, warmer tone by allowing more of the lower partials to sing. It also has more sustain, is more powerful, has more dynamic range, and provides warmer and more mellow tones.    

A Boston Performance Edition exclusive, eleven layers of hard-rock maple (used for its superior hardness, grain and stability properties) are glued in different grain angles of 60 degrees, keeping the tuning pins tight but allowing for fluid motion and enabling better quality and longer lasting tunings.

All-wood action parts, solid spruce keys, synthetic ivories and ebonies, and excellent action geometry work seamlessly together to move the hammers to the strings and create an excellent action-touch. The beautiful tone produced by the steinway–designed Boston hammers enhances the action touch by rewarding the player with a beautiful tone.

Dimensions

Height: 132 cm (52")
Width: 154 cm (60½")
Depth: 67 cm (26¼")
Net Weight: 300 kg (661 lb)

Encasement

Cabinet Style
European

Finish
High Polish: Ebony

Hardware
Solid brass: polished and lacquered.

Technical Specifications

Rim/Backframe
Mahogany foot-piece soundboard lining and backboard. Specially-designed grand-type mahogany closing rim; unequaled vertical strength and stability and improved acoustics. Backposts have staggered spacing to enhance tone and provide support where needed.

Braces/Posts
Full-length laminated spruce posts assure that the backframe will remain straight and consistent and tuning will remain stable. Spruce fill-blocks between posts at the top and bottom of the backframe, capped with a maple backboard for positive vertical alignment. Solid filler blocks (no hollow spots). 5 posts. Total cross sectional area: 477 cm² (73.9 in²). Thickness of post: 9 cm (3½"). Width of post: (3) 9 cm (3½"), (2) 13 cm (5⅛").

Pinblock
Octagrip™ pinblock made of 11 layers of hard rock maple — glued in different grain angles of 60 degrees — affording the tuning pins greater stability under tension and enabling the piano to stay in tune longer.

Soundboard
Close and straight-grain solid (not laminated) spruce. Minimum 3 annual growth rings per cm (minimum 8 per inch). Tapered from treble to bass, to provide a rich tone in the bass, and a brilliant and crisp tone in the treble, creating a well-balanced and lasting tonal response. Tapered from 9 mm to 8 mm. Vibrating area: 1.14 m² (1,767 in²). Closing rim evens out the soundboard’s response to all frequencies, eliminating “hot” spots. Emulates shape of grand soundboard.

Ribs
Made from durable spruce to assure strong and constant support of the strings bearing down on the soundboard. Ribs are fully let-in to the liner to support the important soundboard crown and prevent the piano from losing its tone. Number of ribs: 11

Bridges
Treble: Solid maple, curved to fit the crown of the soundboard. Bass: Solid maple mounted to cantilevered base. Doweled, glued, and screwed to soundboard. One continuous base and treble bridge.

Scale
Overstrung: Lower tension scale for longer sustaining tone and longer life of the whole piano. 16,104 kg (35,428 lb) tension.

Plate
Cast from grey iron, bronze-painted and lacquered. Vacuum cast.
Tuning Pins Nickel-plated steel, cut threaded.

Strings
Treble: Highest grade steel (in half size increments). Number of sizes: 13. Lowest tenor note: 30. Bass: Steel core wire wound with solid copper. Number 1 speaking length: 121.7 cm (47.9")

Hammers
Premium wool topfelt over premium wool underfelt. Weight of topfelt: 9.4 kg (20.8 lb). Compression-wired to retain permanent shape. Mahogany moldings. Hammer-shanks from select resilient maple or horn-beam. Computer-designed pear-shaped hammers with reinforced shoulders result in superior tone, increased durability and greater voicing ability.

Action
Solid maple (all wood, no plastic) for all moving parts. Extruded aluminum action rails for increased stability and less frequent regulation. Dependable direct-blow design.

Keys
Genuine spruce, individually balanced and weighted. Synthetic ivory and ebony key covers. Length of key: 40.3 cm (15.9").

Keybed
Made from laminated hardwood. Strong, rugged construction provides a solid mount for the keyframe and action allowing for precise and prolonged action regulation. Keybed thickness is 42 mm.

Keyframe
Spruce with hardwood inserts in the balance rail and front rail for added stability.

Pedals
Soft (half-blow), muffler, and sustaining (damper) pedals.

Other
Music desk: Professional music desk. Two-position upper panel for tone escapement and solid music support. Fallboard: Soft fall fallboard. Casters: Solid brass casters. Prop Sticks: Top prop sticks. Bench: Matching wood-top bench.