Voicing up Shigeru Kawai SK3

[Stéphane Hanriat]

Thanks a lot Richard for these interesting comments.

I still consider my piano as excellent, the best I've ever seen during 2
years looking
at Shimmel, Yamaha, Sauter, Pleyel, Steingreber, Petrof, Ibach, Grotrian,
Feurich,
and even Steinway & Bosen...
With this improvement in the range I mentioned, it would be simply perfect.

I'll discuss the 'battery voicing' with the Kawai Master Piano Artisan when
he is coming
at home for the visit, although I would be more confortable with ironing or
banging.

Cheers,
Stephane Hanriat


----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 11:14 PM
Subject: Re: Voicing up Shigeru Kawai SK3


> If the lower shoulders have not been needled (around 3 and 9 oclock) you
> can try some limited deep needling there to try and bring up some
> power..but this high up in the treble it is unlikely you will gain very
> much. Ironing with hard pressure can help and likely will give you a bit
> back.  If that doesnt work, and filing hasnt helped.. then you are left
> with either changing hammers or trying a bit of laquer.  Before you try
> either you might just play on the piano a good deal, and bang in the
> weak area quite a bit. That may harden them up enough for you.
>
> A shame on a brand new Shigeru.  In defense of your voicer I would point
> out that there is a good deal of subjectivity involved when it comes to
> voicing. Its not always easy to know exactly what is going to please
> each customer. You'd be (maybe) suprised how much variance there is in
> voicing preferences from pianist to pianist.
>
> That said... a good piano voice will generally allow for a very bright,
> but not compact fortisimo, and a pianismo that does not really loose so
> much its brightness as it gains a kind of subdued roundness quality to
> the sound it creates. At least thats sort of how it "feels" to me.
>
> Cheers
> RicB
>
>
> Stéphane Hanriat wrote:
> > 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 <mailto: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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