$4,500 is too much money to pay for a 32 year old Kawai 350 in need of bridge work. I would suggest that either the client bargains the price down to cover the bridge work or find another piano to buy. Rob Goodale, RPT Las Vegas, NV J Patrick Draine wrote: > Dear List: > I just returned from a piano evaluation, for a customer looking to buy a (32 year > old) small model 350 Kawai grand, walnut veneer, for $4500. Everything looked AOK > EXCEPT: > the bridge gain (cf. Mason, he also calls it the bridge core; I'd call it the > bridge body) is separating along the diagonal joint 3-4 notes above the > tenor/treble break. There's minor cracking of the bridge surface at the bridge > pins, but there's clearly been some glue joint failure at the joint in the body of > the bridge (the sides of the bridge are no longer flush, the joint line is too > prominent). No tonal deficiencies because of it (yet). > I'm (optimistically) thinking I could fix this in the home by running screws with > washers through the separated parts, soak epoxy into the slight but real > separation, etc. I'm hoping that with 2-3 sessions the bridge should be AOK. > Have any of you had success with this kind of repair on other Asian pianos (I've > seen this as a problem area on all of their long bridges)? > Or should I tell my customer to back out of the deal? > Comments, Jim Jon Ron Roger et al?
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