Rod, When I did the factory tour of Young Chang in Korea last June, I took photos of the Essex grand in their factory. I have been told by the local Steinway dealer that the Essex is to be made in both china and Korea to keep the standard up. They are playing on factory off against the other. Kerry Cooper ARPT Brisbane From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Rob & Helen Goodale Sent: Tuesday, 20 November 2007 3:39 PM To: Pianotech List Subject: Re: Boston Pianos The Essex is no longer made in Korea, it entirely a Chinese product. Boston is 100% built by Kawai but is not 100% Kawai's specifications. For example, Kawai is now exclusively using the carbon composite actions which have shown to be far more stable. The Bostons have traditional maple actions. A while back I had the opportunity to ask one of the Kawai marketing executives why that was. The explanation was simple. Kawai sunk huge amounts of capital in research, development, and putting into production the fully carbon composite action, (Yamaha is using some of these type parts but mostly just flanges right now). When an agreement was reached for Kawai to manufacture the Boston, a condition was they flatly refused to share their efforts in developing the new components with a competitor. I also asked why they had agreed to build them at all for a competitor. The bottom line was that it keeps the factory busy and boosts their production numbers. Given the choice many are not particularly excited about it, but business is business. Rob Goodale, RPT Las Vegas, NV -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20071121/9185e303/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Boston.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 203383 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20071121/9185e303/attachment-0001.pdf
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