Light fixturesBoston and Kawai are NOT, repeat, NOT, NADA, NO WAY the same pianos. This is one of my biggest "piss me off" pet peeves in the world of stencil pianos and misleading marketing tactics of manufacturers. Let's be perfectly clear. This is not a personal attack on any individual within Steinway. In fact I have known people there over the years and was even approached long ago about a possible position. I turned it down because I was born a south-westerner and had no interest in living there. But there should be no mistake a Boston is not a Kawai. For lack of a better term Bostons are "striped down" Kawais. Engineering features you will find on a Kawai are removed. One of the more obvious of these are the carbon composite actions. Kawai spent millions $ and years of research developing this technology. If you have not had the opportunity to work on one of the most recent versions of these you are missing out on a real treat. They repeat like lightening, they are incredibly consistent, and you can forget about humidity problems. I have heard some technicians reject the idea but then again cast iron was rejected in the 1700s because everyone thought iron had no place in music. It's techno-evolution, get over it. We don't use vacuum tubes anymore either. The Boston does not have ABS parts. I asked one of their marketing executives, (name with held), why this was. Simply put Kawai made an executive decision that they were not going to share this technology with a competitor. Too much money and sweat went into development to give it away to another label. In spite my protest, (and I think more for political reasons), the university purchased two of them. The jack flanges are all too tight and sticking because the birds eyes were made too wide for the slot. With ABS parts this would have never been a problem. The action rails are not the same. Bostons use Steinway-type flanges which means they have to use aluminum rails with modified extruded surfaces to accommodate them. Steinway flanges are shaped the way they are in order to fit on Steinway brass rails. There are no logical reasons for them to be that shape on a Boston except to give a salesman something to talk about. You won't find the same hammers on a Boston either. Not unlike Steinway they are more soft and fluffy. You can expect to spend more time voicing them and a lot more maintenance in the long run. The scale is also different, lower tension and more reminiscent of a Steinway. Some of the tuning pins are in a different order in terms of which pin goes to which string. I don't know to what extent, but I have seen many Bostons with not as nice of a finish and in some cases lacquer instead of poly. The list goes on. There is one other major difference. An unknowledgeable shopper under the influence of a skilled salesman will pay more, (or at least equal), for an inferior Boston than for a genuine Kawai. Having said all that Steinway must be applauded for one major accomplishment. Be it moral or not, deceptive or not, it is the capitalist way of doing business. They have some very skilled marketing people who have succeeded in a creative way to make money without actually having produced anything. Who can blame them for that? Viva capitalism! Rob Goodale, RPT Las Vegas, NV The name "Boston" and associated with "Steinway" made them about 8 to 9 thousand dollars more. I recently contacted a dealer which carries both for prices on Boston GP-215 (7'1") and Kawai RX-6 (7'0") and was told they were exactly the same price, both list and sell price. Jeff Tanner, RPT University of South Carolina -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20070212/99484345/attachment-0001.html
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