Description
Designed by Steinway & Sons, the Essex has been created as a tribute to the idea that beautiful piano styles and finishes can and should be possible in every price range.
Cabinet
The Essex incorporates the latest design and engineering enhancements from Steinway’s dedicated research and development team. By utilizing specially engineered materials, large-scale production techniques, and carefully selected manufacturing environments, the Essex is able to deliver a level of musical performance previously unattainable in its price range.
Soundboard/Backposts
High-grade, straight-grained, quarter-sawn spruce is selected for its 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 is thicker in the middle and gently tapered to the edges. The Essex soundboard is tapered from bass to treble resulting in a stronger, richer, fuller tone.
Essex backposts are massive — providing a solid foundation for the resonating soundboard and tensioned vibrating strings, thus helping create a beautiful tone. Essex 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.
String Scale
A low tension string scale, designed by Steinway, 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.
Key/Action/Hammers
All-wood action parts, solid spruce keys, and excellent action geometry work seamlessly together to move the hammers to the strings and to create an excellent action touch. The beautiful tone produced by the Steinway–specified Essex hammers actually enhances the action touch by “giving back” to the player a beautiful tone.
