Question on upgrading upright piano

[tammytang]

Hi all,

I have a Kawai upright (played for around 6 years). It's sound is beautiful but the responding of the keys is not fast enough (especially when playing repeated notes).
I asked my technician about this and he advised that this problem can be improved by refining the nap between the connection of the keys and hammers. And the whole set of hammers will be moved a little bit forward to the strings too in order to have heavier touching. For this upgrading process, I don't need to deliver the whole piano to the technician's place but only the whole part of the hammers. It will take around 2 weeks and costs about $450.

If this can upgrade my piano, it'll be great! But I'm just wondering if this really helps and if I want to sell my piano one day, I could not get a good price as some changing has been done to it.....

Did anyone do this to your piano? Does this really help?

[tammytang]

Sorry for posting it in the wrong place......
Pls disregard and I'll re-post.

[gboblow]

As a piano rebuilder, I can tell you that the problem is the difference between the actions (the collection of parts that translates the key movement to the strings) in a grand and an upright. The grand action has what is called a repetition lever, which the upright does not have. It allows for rapid repeating of a single note. In a piano that new it is probably as quick as it will ever be right now. As to the movement of the hammers, the position of the hammers is part of the design of the scale of the piano. If you move the hammers closer to the strings, you will loose some of the power of the piano, and will not gain any speed. It will also affect the touch. If I were you, I would save that $450.00 toward a baby grand. You can find some good deals if you take your time.
Thanks, George