[CAUT] NAMM Report

[Rob & Helen Goodale]

(post duplicated to pianotech list)

Hello all,

Just got back from the NAMM show.  I haven't been in a few years so I 
thought it was time to catch up.  Here is my report.

As always lots of piano folks there.  As expected the reps were very anxious 
to do business with dealers.  A tough sell this year with sales down for 
most markets. Dealer prices, even with NAMM specials, were pretty much rock 
bottom and flat as they will go for now.  Dealers are being very careful on 
keeping inventories low.  The general feeling among the retailers that I 
spoke with, however, is for measurable improvement in sales over the coming 
year.  I sat in on a number of negotiation meetings with the local dealer 
this year with their blessing and got a good education.  I am unable to 
elaborate, however, as the details are privileged information.

I saw a number of tech people along the way.  A nice hello to Don Mannino, 
and a big congratulations to Mark Wisner who has taken the position of 
general technical service manager with Kawai after having recently departed 
Pearl River.  It was only his 5th day with the company but he was excited. 
I stopped by and visited the PTG booth and said hello to the folks.  The 
2008 national convention will be held in a hotel only walking distance from 
there.  I saw a few other techs walking around from a distance.

I made the usual rounds checking out all the manufacturers and their wares. 
Among this years first NAMM inaugural appearance there was only one new 
piano brand that truly impressed me in it's particular class and price 
range.  The award goes to Hailun from China, 
http://www.hailunpiano.com/en/index_e.asp.  The company has been making 
parts for other brands outside of China for many years but this is the first 
piano of their own.  Some of the features included a tunable duplex scale, 
German felt, hornbeam action parts, a tapered sound board, and an overall a 
very nice looking and well engineered instrument.  Some leading people 
outside of China designed it and it is reported to be the only piano factory 
not owned by the government.  The uprights as of now have agraffs all the 
way up, and removing the mute rail for tuning takes 10 seconds.  All models 
include a leather adjustable simi-artist bench.  Pre-installed PianoDisc 
players are an available option and are installed at the factory meaning 
they would already be regulated for it, something PianoDisc does not do when 
installed in Sacramento.  With their permission I pulled and examined an 
action.  The only critique I have, (and a relatively mild one), were the 
action rails.  The hammer rail was wood.  Being the old stand-by design 
there isn't anything inherently bad about this but I would have expected the 
more stable aluminum as with most modern designs.  The wippen rail was 
aluminum but with a maple core.  Better, but I would hope to see these items 
improved.  They are not available for made-to-order stenciled names.

I must mention Kawai's new upright which was shown for the first time. 
Kawai has at last discontinued the UST-7 and UST-8 in favor of the all new 
UST-9.  It only wholesales for about $100 more than the UST-8.  It appears 
somewhat like the UST-8 but it has the scale and the back of the UST-7 and a 
number of other all-around general improvements.  It has their poly-carbon 
action making regulation very stable.  This should be quite popular as a 
general school piano.  They also debuted a new digital piano that has a wood 
sound board.  Although they did not illustrate how they did it, the board is 
directly connected to the speaker coil giving it a more piano-like sound.  I 
was invited to the Kawai reception dinner where they used it as part of the 
live entertainment with a sound board pick-up rather than the audio outputs. 
Someone jokingly asked when they were going to offer a digital piano with 
strings.  It still doesn't sound like a real piano but perhaps a slight step 
in the right direction.  Most of the evenings entertainment featured the 
massive 9'5"  EX.

I did the usual wandering throughout the show.  A lot of interesting new 
electronic gismos if you are into that sort of thing.  Sound modules, 
harmonizers, and other types of electronic effects processors were very big 
this year, as was digital percussion.  There didn't seem to be as many 
Chinese companies this time around as I recall from the past selling things 
like horns and accordions.  Roland Unveiled a new portable keyboard that was 
kind of interesting.  I limited my time in the lower level exhibit halls as 
they tend to be incredibly noisy with everyone test driving instruments all 
at once, particularly the electric guitars and drums.

PianoDisc has redesigned the Opus system.  The new control module is 
enclosed in a re-engineered case with a massive heat sink to resolve a 
previous overheating problem.  The control tablet is new, more compact, and 
most importantly it is far faster than the old speeding snail unit.  It uses 
the Microsoft compact PC, (PDA), operating system which means it can be 
directly interfaced with the internet.  Unfortunately the new design does 
not reduce the number of cables required under the piano meaning that 
installs will still require coiling the massive spaghetti mess under there. 
As expected Nina Butler and Mark Burgett were both present.  I inquired 
about the wireless audio transmitters for the benifit of the occasional 
customers who want them.  We have been having some issues with these. 
Traditionally they have had problems picking up noise and sometimes a little 
AC hum drifting through.  Mark informed me they are no longer providing them 
and that hard-wiring the system is all they will now recommend due to these 
frequent complaints.  I visited the Shure booth who was previously providing 
PianoDisc with the units to see if there were any alternatives.  Shure has 
discontinued them altogether and I walked away with only a free T-shirt.  As 
a VHF system most wireless manufactures are now turning to UHF frequencies 
for quieter and better performance.  In spite my searching the entire NAMM 
floor all I could find were mic or guitar wireless UHF, no line input 
systems.  Bottom line, no more wireless audio for PDS.

So that's the NAMM report.  Other than paying $9.00 each day for parking 
over the course of three days and the $11.00 fatty sandwich I ate, it was a 
worth while trip.  My tired feet, however, dispute that claim.

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV