Master Piano Artisan

[Dean May]

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Our Indy chapter was fortunate enough to have a Japanese MPA do a =
technical at the local Kawai dealer, The Piano Merchant. It was =
fascinating. He started out by asking if anyone spoke Japanese or German =
who could translate for him, as his English was very poor. Nobody did so =
he continued in very broken English. Language barrier aside there was =
marvelous communication that evening as he demonstrated voicing and =
regulating techniques. A couple of things that stuck with me: he set =
letoff at 1 mm for plain wire and the diameter of the string for wound =
wire. He did it by watching the hammer and never looking down at the =
letoff dowel. Holding the tool in his hand he would feel the heel of the =
jack with his finger and follow it up to determine the correct dowel. =
Then he'd find the holes in the dowel to turn it by touch alone. He =
could go over every note in a very short amount of time using this =
technique. He also set very little drop from letoff- maybe one mm.
=20
Another tip for when he was needling near the crown, he used a small =
flashlight to shine the light across the crown. This made the very faint =
string marks on the new hammers stand out as they would be in shadows. =
The actual contact points he carefully avoided with his needles.=20
=20
Thanks for the clarification, Don. Sounds like the MPA is really a PhD =
in piano technology.
=20
Dean
=20
Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN  47802
=20
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On =
Behalf Of Donald Mannino
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 12:00 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Master Piano Artisan
=20
Jack,

Master Piano Artisan is a title given by Kawai to the technicians who do =
all of the final assembly, regulation, tuning and voicing of the Shigeru =
Kawai pianos.  The title is bestowed on the technicians after a very =
extensive training and experience-building process.  These technicians =
are trained in the Kawai schools, then work as an apprentice in the =
Kawai R&D laboratory building EX pianos.  They are given concert service =
experience in Japan, then are sent to Europe for 2 years to work on all =
types of pianos - not just Kawai or Shigeru Kawai pianos.  The are =
assigned to at least one piano competition during this time to gain =
experience in a very demanding situation.  Later they spend time in the =
US and Canada learning about pianists' tastes here, and finally return =
to Japan to take a very stringent final exam.  If they pass this exam, =
they then can build the Shigeru Kawai pianos, and can begin to service =
them in the field.

There are only about 20 of these technicians, so they could not possibly =
provide all service to all of the Shigeru Kawai pianos sold!  They are =
sent to each Shigeru Kawai owner's home once for a full day in-home =
service to ensure that the piano is well regulated and voiced to the =
customer's tastes.  From there it is up to the local technician to keep =
the piano up.

The MPAs are not the only people who should work on a Shigeru Kawai =
piano.  There is nothing special about these pianos which would keep any =
technician from servicing them, although it is true that the MPAs, since =
they are the ones making the pianos, are especially good at getting the =
Shigeru Kawai pianos to play and sound their best.

Kawai does have a training program in place for technicians to learn the =
special methods of the MPAs.  The program is still in it's infancy, =
though, so it is not possible for large numbers of technicians to =
participate yet.  It is mainly open to Shigeru Kawai dealer technicians =
for now.

Don Mannino RPT
Kawai America


At 10:16 PM 2/23/2004, you wrote:


Hello=20
What is a Master Piano Artisan? I have heard this in past postings and =
want to know what qualifies one for using this term? Is there schools or =
tests to become a MPA?  Just curious.
=20
Jack Houweling
Beautiful British Columbia
=20
=20

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