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
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