================= Begin forwarded message ================= From: 75334.217@compuserve.com ("Barbara E. Richmond") To: berich@heartland.bradley.edu (Barbara Richmond) Subject: Prep those Kawai pianos Date: 08 Mar 95 22:06:11 EST My Recipe for Prepping Kawai Pianos--a compilation of advice from a lot of respected technicians. Hope you find it helpful. Preheat oven to 350. Do all those things to prep a piano that you were taught--check regulation, pedals, polish capstans, etc. Here are the things I found especially important for Kawais: Tighten plate bolts/screws. They are almost always loose. Tune. I always tune the instrument first to get a feel for what it needs--unless, of course, the voicing is so horrible I can't bear to tune it. (Proceed in the order which is logical for the job.) Seat strings. The idea here is to seat the strings at all pressure points. *Lightly* tap strings (I use brass stock, slightly tapered and my combination hammer tool) at the following places: before the agraffe, before and after the ridge (shoot, I can't remember what tha's called) in the plate that the strings go over before going under the capo bar. Using a string hook, pull up on the speaking length of the core wire of the bass strings to seat at top of the agraffe. Remove action from piano. Using a bit of brass stock or what ever, push up on or massage the treble wire strings, again in the speaking length, to seat them at the agraffes or capo bar. (I used to use my string hook here until some- one said I might be kinking the string.) Next, tap lightly with brass stock and hammer in front of and after bridges. Tap lightly in front of and after any pressure points be- tween the bridge and the hitch pins. Tap strings at hitch pins. This procedure helps almost any piano, but remember that the instrument must be at pitch before starting and always use a light touch! Voice those hammers! Use small (I think mine are 4 1/2 or 5") vise-grips (OK, you can groan here), jaws set to squeeze uniformly on all hammers. Squeeze shoulders enough to make a small imprint. This should produce a slight cupping of the hammer. Experience will teach you how much pressure to apply. Using one big strong needle in a heavy voicing tool, drive needle in shoulders parallel to the hammer moulding at a depth and using enough strokes (3-6?) to help straighten out the cupping. Don't destroy the hammer!--light sanding/shaping is allowed after needling. Remember to suppot the hammers while needling. Replace action and listen. The sustain should be much improved. For the next step I use my little Yamaha upright voicing tool with three needles. Insert needles parallel to the strike surface, running in the same direction and just under the string lines. Replace action and listen. This should take away some of that brittle attack. Again, experience will teach how much and how deep. There needs to be a small layer of "soft" at the strike point. Voice the same way for the soft pedal. Listen for any twangs indicating that the hammers aren't square to the strings. Fix. This voicing method also greatly impoves the Kawai upright pianos. Lay the action down on blocks supporting the action brackets. (I use 2x4s with carpet on the wide side.) Proceed. After voicing, re-tuning may be necessary! Here are a couple of other things I look for. Especially when butterfly springs were new to Kawai, they were always set too tight (I about hit myself in the face one time because the kick was so strong---just kidding.). Very often the balance rail holes are too tight. Regulate them; it makes a *big* difference in sound, power and touch. That's all I can think of at the moment. Hope you have good results. Yes, I typed this out on Compuserve (editing is much easier here) and sent it to my Internet account. Barbara Richmond Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington, Illinois berich@heartland.bradley.edu I don't know what happened to the format of this message. Hope you all can read it because I'm not typing it out again. Grin. BR
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