<html> At 10:56 PM 3/10/2003 +0930, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>ABS flanges or the type of felt used are affected more by humidity than the flanges in most other pianos. Tony Caught</blockquote> Tony, I'm not sure where you got this information, but it is completely incorrect.  Perhaps you have been taken in by a non-ABS propaganda artist!  The ABS material is inert and does not change measurably with humidity changes, and the bushing cloth is just a normal tight woven wool bushing cloth - it does not react any differently than any other piano. I once had the same misunderstanding regarding ABS flanges.  The reasoning went that the wood hole expands along with the felt during humid times, and thereby gives some compensation for the swelling of the wool cloth. In reality, the wood hole expands in an oval shape, and the amount of movement is only barely measurable using very high quality reference points.  Since the hole expansion is not the same in all directions, the effective radius of the hole (from the perspective of the center pin) does not change enough to measurably compensate for the wool expansion. Kawai ABS actions have really, truly excellent reputations in the most humid climates, and it is extremely rare to have to repin Kawai actions in humid climates.  If you have had some bad experiences with particular pianos, don't simply blame it on the ABS.  The reason I say this is that in the 80s I can remember having to repin 1 Kawai actions which had frozen up - but it was a UST-6 which had all wood action parts! Since I started working for Kawai in 1995, we have had close to zero complaints of tight action centers. Any piano maker can have problems with action centers for one reason or another, and virtually all piano companies have at one time or another.  It is completely incorrect to assume that the ABS would be responsible for tight action centers in a particular piano or climate. Don Mannino RPT </html>