Voicing up Shigeru Kawai SK3

[Richard Brekne]

If the lower shoulders have not been needled (around 3 and 9 oclock) you 
can try some limited deep needling there to try and bring up some 
power..but this high up in the treble it is unlikely you will gain very 
much. Ironing with hard pressure can help and likely will give you a bit 
back.  If that doesnt work, and filing hasnt helped.. then you are left 
with either changing hammers or trying a bit of laquer.  Before you try 
either you might just play on the piano a good deal, and bang in the 
weak area quite a bit. That may harden them up enough for you.

A shame on a brand new Shigeru.  In defense of your voicer I would point 
out that there is a good deal of subjectivity involved when it comes to 
voicing. Its not always easy to know exactly what is going to please 
each customer. You'd be (maybe) suprised how much variance there is in 
voicing preferences from pianist to pianist.

That said... a good piano voice will generally allow for a very bright, 
but not compact fortisimo, and a pianismo that does not really loose so 
much its brightness as it gains a kind of subdued roundness quality to 
the sound it creates. At least thats sort of how it "feels" to me.

Cheers
RicB


Stéphane Hanriat wrote:
> Hello,
>  
> I own a brand new Shigeru Kawai SK3 that the Kawai technician in France has
> made, according to me,  too deep voicing on notes in the treeble range 
> (octave 5 to 6).
>  
> Although he disagrees with that, the tone is slightly too mellow in this 
> range,
> from pianissimo up to mezzo forte. At pianissimo or piano, the higher 
> partials are
> reduced compared to neighboring octaves (impacted notes are from 55 to 69),
> and the attack looks a bit dull.
> Those higher partials are coming back with more strength on the key. 
> However,
> these notes always require slightly more strength to produce a balanced 
> sound.
>  From Mezzo forte up to Forte, things are OK (overall loudness and tone 
> quality
> is well balanced)
>  
> The technician made several filing with very limited improvement. I'm not a
> specialist, just a pianist - but my engineering background and what I 
> learned
> reading your very interesting posts, tell me that there has been likely 
> too much
> deep needling in the higher section of the shoulders.
>  
> The Shigeru hammers are cold-pressed and are considered as medim/soft in
> europe. May be they are not  very robust to extensive voicing.
>  
> I'm wondering what could be the best solution to recover some power to these
> 15 hammers : dry ironing, juicing or changing those 15 hammer heads ?
> Kawai says the tone will not be even if I change only a sub set of hammers
> (they don't want to replace either full set of subset anyway...).
>  
> Have you experienced changing subset of hammers in this range ?
> Which hammer head brand would you recommend for those Kawai pianos (softer
> than Yamaha...) ?
> Do you think dry ironing would make it ? (actually the recovery level 
> I'm expecting
> is not that big and the felt thickness is small in this range, so this 
> could work).
>  
> Many thanks for your feedbacks,
> Sincerely yours,
> Stephane Hanriat
> stephane.hanriat@free.fr <mailto:stephane.hanriat@free.fr>
>  
> PS : This being said, the SK3 is an outstanding instrument. Action is 
> close to
> perfection, overall tone is wonderful, rich, not too harsh like Yamaha 
> and the
> softer hammers give you great control and margin in the way you produce 
> louder
> sound.
>  
>