has anyone ever tried this?

[Don]

Hi Mike,

Kawai pianos have very little downbearing from the strings on the bridge.
This gives them the potential for wonderful stability. One of my favorite
pianos is the UST-7. Would that it were still in production!

At 08:59 AM 11/8/2007 -0600, you wrote:

>I have been on the receiving end of this Japanese manufacturing
>treatment. When I first began tuning for a Kawai dealer over 25 years
>ago the entire line was made in Hamamatsu, Japan. The pianos would
>arrive boxed, on a skid wrapped in a heavy plastic wrap, no not
>wrapped, sealed and when opened and removed from the skid and the
>action was untied  the piano would be in tune with itself, usually
>about 25c sharp! It wasn't perfectly in tune, there were rough unisons
>here and there but for the most part it was, decently, by octaves, in
>tune. Within a week to ten days it would go out of tune depending on
>time of year, summer/fall took a little longer. These were verticals
>for the most part with the occasional grand.
>My belief was that all of the pianos strung there received the
>treatment described above and after the chipping and rough tuning were
>fine tuned that 25c sharp to allow for stretch while they were
>warehoused. They were then sealed in the plastic which also sealed the
>humid air of the Japanese islands in with the piano allowing it to
>remain sharp until opened.
>I would "floor tune" them until sold and found that although they
>needed the requisete 3 or 4 tunings in the first year it wasn't nearly
>as much as the american brands I had been used to. When I returned to
>tune them after 3 months they weren't all THAT out of tune compared to
>Baldwins, Wurlies, Kimballs etc.
>
>Mike
Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat

mailto:pianotuna at yahoo.com	http://us.geocities.com/drpt1948/

3004 Grant Rd. REGINA, SK, S4S 5G7
306-539-0716 or 1-888-29t-uner