Kawai metal cabinet parts

[Jim Harvey]

Saturday, March 6, 2004, 12:25:07 PM, you wrote:

l> These are KS2F's and could also be grey market.  If you grab the two
l> toes (while the piano is standing) and wiggle, they creak.  Nice pianos
l> otherwise. It's not a pedal, but in the cabinet itself. I've oiled the
l> brackets (that are inside affixed to the toe back and sides of piano
l> itself) and the creak has stopped (at least for now).  I think that's
l> the first time I've ever used oil on a piano.  I was afraid someone
l> would see me holding the can!!  I'm not certain about the permanency of
l> my fix, so thought I'd ask the more Kawai experienced.  There is a screw
l> under the caster as mentioned, but EVERYTHING showing and some not, has
l> been tightened.  As to the welding, if you are referring to the welds
l> visible on the bottom, they are fine, if it's inside the "box" that is
l> the toe, I dunno. Thanks to you all.   

Lance, I'm sure these would have been during my watch, but barely.
IOW, about the only thing I remember was they seemed to be a pretty
nice-sounding box for their size. I want to remember that they were
pretty well-mannered in terms of scaling, tune-ability, and action
response, but even that would have been an early impression.

Other than that, I don't have the benefit of much empirical data,
certainly not how the piano would react [xx] years into it's service
life.

I'm a little confused as well. Your initial post said "I have found a
few that creak when the pedals are depressed fully." That led me to
focus on trapwork, with the legs/toes being ancillary or by-products
of pedal action. Now you're grabbing and wiggling the toe blocks
(pedals are out of the circuit). While toe block wiggling in itself is
not something I would consider a normal condition, it now leads me to
lean toward "polyester squeak" [Harveyism]. This I *have* heard quite
often, in places that would normally be considered "fixed" objects.
Sometimes it can be verbalized as a squeak (aka mouse), sometimes a
grunt (aka me), sometimes a groan. I'm not adverse to adding "creak"
to the list if the symptoms indicate. I've had this phenomenon occur
on grands and verticals, and across brand names. About the only common
link is that they all seem to have been black, shiny, and with
polyester cover coats.

We'll see if Don can weigh in on this. As for my part, I'm sorry that
I can't come up with something better in the way of response. This may
be one of those times when you have to tell *us* after you've figured
it out! 8-}


-- 
Regards,
 Jim                            mailto:harvey@greenwood.net