Pete, the easiest way to live with the bright sound of your Steinway
(many Steinways tend to be "bright" in sound) may be to change the
acoustics of your room, rather than trying to change the piano.  First,
if you have a tiny room and a huge piano, you've got a problem no matter
what you do.  Assuming this is not the situation, the following things
may help --

   Find ways to change the shape of the room away from a plain box or
rectangle.  Since you are not building a new room, you could angle a
couch, piano, or other large pieces of furniture.  Just putting some big
pieces of furniture anywhere in the room will help break the straight
lines of the room.

   Carpet at least parts of the room.  Bare floors, walls, and windows do
not mix well with loud instruments.  At the minimum, try putting a thick
throw-rug under your piano, or a large thick area rug someplace.  If you
do the entire floor, you probably want a fairly flat rug, rather that
something very heavy.

   Add large open bookshelves to the room - lots of them, and fill them
with books, or better yet, piano rolls.

   Add large upholstered furniture (or substitute upholstered chairs for
wooden ones).  Put an upholstered cushion on your piano bench.

   Add drapes to the window treatments, and use heavier fabrics.

   If all this fails, you can add carpet-like fabrics to the lower half
or 2/3 of your walls, especially behind the piano.  This can look very
attractive if a nice fabric or carpet is used.

Try these things one at a time.  Right now your room is too live.  But
having a room that is "dead" can be even worse.  Acoustics is not an
exact science, but you can probably improve your enjoyment of the piano
by doing some of these things.

Gloria Schack¶
Member, Musical Box Society International (MBSI)