Kimballs and breaking strings -Reply

[Mark Wisner]

Tom, you wrote "The reason the Yamaha P202s break bass strings is
because of poor scaling, to which the company has admitted fault and
even offers, free, a new set of redesigned strings".

Yamaha doesn't think the scaling for the P202 is faulty.  There have been
cases where we were not comfortable with the number of broken
strings being reported, and have provided a set of bass strings that have
been modified from the original design to reduce the incidence of
breakage.  But since virtually all the calls reporting repeated string
breakage originate from institutions, and almost never from a piano in a
home, or other moderate use environment, it's difficult to assume a faulty
design. The ones that experience chronic broken string problems are just
getting played too hard.

So while we will provide a modified scale set at no charge, (if a history of
the problem is established) it shouldn't be assumed we are admitting a
design flaw or warranty problem.  More along the lines of a courtesy,
acknowledging there are situations that require different solutions than
the standard ones.

The August 1995 PTG Journal "Q&A" section has a excellent article on
this topic.  I recommend it highly.