Kawai heavy action

[Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel)]

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Fred,
 
Quote what you think it will take to do the job correctly without being
influenced by what you think the customer may be willing to pay. $500 is a
lot of money for anyone to spend and not be happy with the results. If the
balance weights are really as high as you suspect, your strategy of adding
lead and/or reducing hammerweight will certainly help. This isn't one of
those Kawais with wippen helper springs, is it? I've seen a couple of those
pianos that had way too much reliance on spring tension with virtually no
lead. Once the springs get out of adjustment (or are cut out or disconnected
by some "expert" technician who doesn't like helper springs) , these actions
become real bears. A nice leading pattern and appropriate spring adjustment
on one of these actions can make an extreme change without an inordinate
amount of work.
 
Spending big bucks on the action could still be cheaper than trading in on a
new instrument and would guarantee an action that won't destroy the
customer's body, though of course you can't guarantee they'll like it!
There's no guarantee that a new piano wouldn't have it own set of action
problems either.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eric Wolfley
Head Piano Technician
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
Wimblees@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 9:46 AM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: Re: Kawai heavy action
 
In a message dated 3/18/04 8:14:41 AM Central Standard Time, fssturm@unm.edu
writes:
This particular customer has developed "wrist problems" (incipient carpel 
tunnel?), and is wondering whether to trade pianos or have this one worked 
on. So I need to be able to speak with authority and say
a) I can take care of this problem. It will cost $X. Or,
b) You are better advised to trade in and get a different piano.
    My sense is that $X needs to be in the "up to $500" range. IOW, action 
geometry changes are probably out of the picture.
Fred.
 
Although I do not have experience with Kawai's particularly, the problem
with the customer spending any kind of money is that there is no guarantee
he'll like the results. It's not that you can't do the job, but even if you
got the weight down, he still might not like what he feels. So you're either
stuck doing more work, without pay, or asking him to spend more money, with
still no guarantee he'll like the result. 
 
That is why it might be best if you could recommend he consider buying
another piano.
 
Just my 2 cents worth.
 
Wim 

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