<html> <body> Hi Stéphane, There's not much I can tell you about this (I could, but I won't!) :-) My university bought a 7' Shigeru about 1-1/2 yrs. ago and it still hasn't been "serviced" like it was supposed to have been. A Kawai tech was recently in town to service some "sales" and I even sent an e-mail requesting (again!) that ours be serviced as promised when one buys a Shigeru. No one even responded to my e-mail!  Well, that was the end of January and so far, no one even has contacted me to have that done! So, I'm sure "that" tech has long since gone back home! It was supposed to have been done the next time one of their techs was in town, according to the dealer! As you might be able to guess, I'm not very happy and at this point, I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a Shigeru based on those "promises"! Sorry. It really surprises me and most of all, disappoints me! Avery At 03:31 PM 2/19/04, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>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 hammer= s 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 <a href="mailto:stephane.hanriat@free.fr">stephane.hanriat@free.fr</a>   PS : This being said, the SK3 is an outstandin= g 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.    </blockquote></body> </html>