Voicing up Shigeru Kawai SK3

[Kevin E. Ramsey]

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I'm a little shocked at the response from my fellow technicians here, =
perhaps they're not familiar with the Shigeru.

First of all, don't even think of changing the hammers on your piano. =
Those hammers are very special, and they are one of the secrets of why =
the Shigeru is what it is.  If you had a technician file the hammers, =
his technique may leave a lot to be desired. With Shigeru's I always =
finish off with at least 800 grit, with the hammers set at the strike =
point, so that I'm getting an absolutely level strike surface. If you =
don't get the strike surface level, you lose power. Unless a technician =
who is not familiar with the special techniques used on one of these =
happened to over-needle the hammers, they come from the factory well in =
the range of where they should be in your home. Only you can answer as =
to who may have worked on your piano.

    I don't want to offend you, but this question sometimes comes from =
people who are losing a little of their high frequency hearing, which is =
more common today than most people realise. I just mention it so that =
you can consider whether that may indeed be a possibility.  If the =
hammers have been over needled in that area of the scale, usually they =
will brighten up when filed properly, and or "reset" with the back end =
of a voicing tool, or a small 2 oz. mallet, in a voicing tray. Do not, =
nor let your technician, treat these hammers with chemicals. These are =
not Steinway hammers, so they don't need the juice, you'll lose your =
dynamic range if you do. Have you had a Japanese technician come out to =
your house, yet? Explain your concerns to him, and I'm sure he can do =
what you want. I read what someone else wrote on the list before I =
hastily jumped in here, about them not coming out to the college.. I'm =
not sure that they do that for institutions, only individuals perhaps. =
I'm sure that Don Mannino is going to jump in here, he's the final =
authority, not me. I only posted this to keep you from doing anything =
too drastic in the meantime.

Kevin E. Ramsey, R.P.T.
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: St=E9phane Hanriat=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 2:31 PM
  Subject: Voicing up Shigeru Kawai SK3


  Hello,

  I own a brand new Shigeru Kawai SK3 that the Kawai technician in =
France has
  made, according to me,  too deep voicing on notes in the treeble range =
(octave 5 to 6).

  Although he disagrees with that, the tone is slightly too mellow in =
this range,
  from pianissimo up to mezzo forte. At pianissimo or piano, the higher =
partials are
  reduced compared to neighboring octaves (impacted notes are from 55 to =
69),
  and the attack looks a bit dull.
  Those higher partials are coming back with more strength on the key. =
However,
  these notes always require slightly more strength to produce a =
balanced sound.
  From Mezzo forte up to Forte, things are OK (overall loudness and tone =
quality
  is well balanced)

  The technician made several filing with very limited improvement. I'm =
not a
  specialist, just a pianist - but my engineering background and what I =
learned
  reading your very interesting posts, tell me that there has been =
likely too much
  deep needling in the higher section of the shoulders.

  The Shigeru hammers are cold-pressed and are considered as medim/soft =
in
  europe. May be they are not  very robust to extensive voicing.

  I'm wondering what could be the best solution to recover some power to =
these
  15 hammers : dry ironing, juicing or changing those 15 hammer heads ?
  Kawai says the tone will not be even if I change only a sub set of =
hammers
  (they don't want to replace either full set of subset anyway...).

  Have you experienced changing subset of hammers in this range ?
  Which hammer head brand would you recommend for those Kawai pianos =
(softer
  than Yamaha...) ?
  Do you think dry ironing would make it ? (actually the recovery level =
I'm expecting
  is not that big and the felt thickness is small in this range, so this =
could work).

  Many thanks for your feedbacks,
  Sincerely yours,
  Stephane Hanriat
  stephane.hanriat@free.fr

  PS : This being said, the SK3 is an outstanding instrument. Action is =
close to
  perfection, overall tone is wonderful, rich, not too harsh like Yamaha =
and the
  softer hammers give you great control and margin in the way you =
produce louder
  sound.


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