Chinese Pianos

[David Ilvedson]

Just a reminder our good friend Mark Wisner is Pearl River's USA service manager....he's famous...picture in the Journal ads...

David I.


----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Ric Brekne" <ricbrek@broadpark.no>
To: pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Received: 9/30/2005 12:39:43 PM
Subject: Chinese Pianos


>I sure as heck do.

>The japanese pianos worked. They sounded tubby as hell, but they worked 
>and were dependable.  The majority of instruments coming out of China, 
>Indonesia, Russia, and Malaysia just plain dont work.  I was in a store 
>a while back whilst a so called Nordiska was unpacked.  It had been 
>sitting on the floor for a few hours and litterally exploded.  We were 
>drinking coffee chit chatting and heard this huge KaBooonggg...  (yes I 
>remember the horse) Upon investigation we found that the entire left 
>hand lower corner of the soundboard had popped loose and cracked 
>severely.  Great stuff.  Actions that simply dont function and can not 
>be made to function, Tuning pins that break off because they are too 
>cheaply made in too tight a fit, pinblocks splitting, pedals that fall 
>off... just about every bizarre event you can imagine.

>I never ever saw either Kawaii or Yamaha instruments do any of these 
>kinds of things. For that matter not Young Changs or Samicks either... 
>tho I have experienced a much hyppiger quantity of dead Koreans 
>soundboards then Japanese after 10 years or so of use.

>Understand me correctly tho... Give the Chinese a few years experience 
>under their tofu bellies... and they will get it right.  Or right 
>enough.    But for now... I remain unimpressed... big time.

>Cheers
>RicB

>--------------
>I don't see much difference between the Japanese pianos exported into 
>the USA 40 years ago and the Chinese pianos exported to us within the 
>last ten years.  Both were of dubious durability.  But the Japanese 
>piano makers quickly improved the manufacturing process, materials and 
>workmanship and now we all benefit from their pianos.  The Chinese have 
>been following the same path the Japanese did (and making some of the 
>same mistakes), and now there are some pretty respectable pianos being 
>made in China, and they are getting better every year.
>For many consumer products, including pianos, manufacturing moves to 
>cheap, skilled, labor.  And when the labor gets too expensive, it moves 
>again.  My personal opinion is that a future generation of piano techs 
>will complain about the poor pianos being made in India (and perhaps 
>refusing to work on them) and comparing them to the great, but more 
>expensive pianos being built in China.

>Mark Wisner
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives