<html> Bob, My usual answer to queries about this is something like this: Any piano which has lived for a long time in one type of climate and is then moved to another climate is going to undergo changes in reaction to the new conditions.  If buying a piano which has just arrived from Asia, one has to accept that there is some risk that the reaction to the new climate could be very bad.  It might also not be a problem, but it is very hard to predict. If the piano has already survived a couple of North American winters, then it is probably safe to say it will be fine from then on.  If it has just arrived, the risks are pretty high. At Kawai we get fairly many calls from people with cracked soundboards in these pianos, but I think this could happen just as easily if someone moved from Miami FL to Minneapolis MN.  Soundboards don't like moving from steady high humidity to abusive low humidity. Don Mannino RPT At 10:51 PM 3/12/2003 -0500, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>To List, It's been interesting reading the posts concerning gray market Yamaha pianos. Do any of you have any info on whether used Kawai pianos imported from Asia are experiencing the same problems in our climate? Bob Russell RPT </blockquote></html>