Shigeru Kawai technician visit (spoiler)

[icefox]

I bought my Shigeru SK3 in Dec 2012 (<$34k, which seemed to be a good deal), and have since been expecting the famed technician visit. After six months I still didn't hear anything and so I contacted Kawai, and I was told that they are a bit behind schedule, but will certainly fulfill their promise of a technician visit within a year. Finally, in Oct Kawai America called me and scheduled this visit in mid Nov.

The technician Mr. Otake showed up on time. He actually speaks quite fluent English (I've heard stories of Kawai visiting technicians not speaking much English). He told me that he's been in the US for a month, and will travel for another two weeks before returning to Japan. He said Kawai sells about 50 SK's last year in North America, and mine was the first in my state. (My plate reads "limited edition, xx of 25", so 25 may be just for SK3.)

Mr. Otake's work was primarily regulating, voicing and a careful tuning. He took out the entire action mechanism and checked the height of the hammers. He seemed to sand the pelt on the tip of the hammer. For a few keys that had stronger resonance, he needled the pelt. He also used a hooked pin to adjust something below the strings when pressing down a key, much like how a dentist cleans teeth. The tuning is more thorough than my usual technician tuning, and he continued to regulate and voice the piano during tuning.

I have to admit that I'm not an advanced pianist, so I probably can't feel many subtle improvements, but what I could tell after the visit is that the action now is more sensitive at lower power. It is now easier to get even pianissimo, and the transition from pianissimo to piano more controllable. That, and of course the clarity/purity you get after a tuning session. What convinced me to get a Shigeru, the tonal variability that stood out in the showroom full of top-class pianos--how the sound is soft and sweet at pianissimo, then gradually opens up to being brilliant at fortissimo--is all more prominent after the session.

I'd like to ask a few questions along the way. In my house I have a programmable thermometer. Do I absolutely have to set the first-floor temperature to be unchanged throughout a year, or does a daily fluctuation of say 60-70 not matter that much for the piano? I know that the varying temperature means I probably need to tune the piano more often, but I'm mostly concerned with permanently damaging the piano. Second question, in summer my room humidity is usually 50%, but in winter with heating, it drops to 32%. My house has an Aprilaire full-house evaporative humidifier and in winter I pretty much have it running 24/7, but it doesn't seem to make a difference, probably because the unit is underpowered for my house. My HVAC guy says I probably need a steam humidifier, but that's a $4k+ investment. I also tried to use a portable humidifier next to the piano, but after several days the humidity reading just doesn't budge. So how do you guys manage humidity?

[hfmadopter]

I don't think your conditions are harsh and certainly not extreme. It would be nice to get the winter low temp to 64 and winter low humidity into the 40% range. But I don't think you need to stress out over it either. If you had 8% humidity in the winter and 70 in the summer that would be different ( large swings in humidity hurt pianos more than temp). But, ideal is 40-50%.

I'm surprised the room humidifier had no impact, I'd have thought if it's adequate for the room that it would work.

[faulty_damper]

Yeah, in general, temp flux doesn't affect wood very much at all.  Humidity is the real killer of pianos, and stuck doors.  Have you ever had a door stuck during the winter when the humidity was high?  Imagine that going on in the pin blocks.  When it dries up, the pins get loose and lose it's tuning.

Also, I'm seriously considering an S. Kawai piano in the future just because of the personal Kawai technician that'll come service the piano.  Thanks for sharing your experiences!

[hfmadopter]

Yeah, in general, temp flux doesn't affect wood very much at all.  Humidity is the real killer of pianos, and stuck doors.  Have you ever had a door stuck during the winter when the humidity was high?  Imagine that going on in the pin blocks.  When it dries up, the pins get loose and lose it's tuning.

Also, I'm seriously considering an S. Kawai piano in the future just because of the personal Kawai technician that'll come service the piano.  Thanks for sharing your experiences!

I love their mid and upper register tone. Beautiful, crystal clear sound. I don't dare play one, I'd probably finance the thing !!!!!! So I stay away, with retirement knocking on my doorstep I can't be doing such things.

[icefox]

well my "piano room" is not exactly a room... my house's entire first floor is largely one connected open space, and the piano is also next to the opening and staircase going to the second floor.

I have been thinking about having a "piano life savor" system, although I don't really like having a wire connecting to the beautiful piano, and also doubt the effectiveness. If my powered full-house evaporator doesn't even help, what can a few square inches of wet cloth do anyway?

I'm surprised the room humidifier had no impact, I'd have thought if it's adequate for the room that it would work.

[hfmadopter]

well my "piano room" is not exactly a room... my house's entire first floor is largely one connected open space, and the piano is also next to the opening and staircase going to the second floor.

I have been thinking about having a "piano life savor" system, although I don't really like having a wire connecting to the beautiful piano, and also doubt the effectiveness. If my powered full-house evaporator doesn't even help, what can a few square inches of wet cloth do anyway?

You may think the central house humidifier is ineffective but think where the level might be without it. The piano life saver system is concentrated at the piano, it might kick the level up the few points you seek. Can't help you with the wire, the system has to be powered. Maybe the wire could be run discretely up a leg or something..

[perfectlygrand]

The fact is the range of humidity fluctuation in your home (if you've measured it correctly) is minor compared to many regions of the US.  Pianos are manufactured to reside in a RH of around 40%- so you could definitely get away without installing a humidity control system or a whole house system.  Temperature fluctuations do not effect pianos - except to pull RH either up or down.  Keep your piano out of direct sunlight and you should be good to go.

Charles
perfectlygrand.com

[perfectlygrand]

Oh - I forgot to say.  You mentioned the Kawai master technician inserted a hook between the strings...  What he was doing was leveling the tri-chords (the 3 strings) so when the hammer contacted the strings the vibrations were activated exactly at the same time.  He did this by feeling the 3 strings per note - feeling which one was higher and then pulling up the other two - with the hook - to match.

[keys60]

The "dentists hook" was used to adjust the spring in the wippen. Nice to know they provide such thorough service. That's a dream piano you have there, IMHO.

[quantum]

Over here, we can get very wild temperature swings.  It could be -30 C one day, 0 C three days later, +10 C the next week, and back to -20 C the following week.  You've got to love Canadian winters  . 

Indoor temperature stays controlled by the heating system, but the humidity does swing up and down.  The colder it is outside the house, the longer and harder the furnace has to work to keep a constant indoor temperature.  And the longer the furnace runs, the more it drys up the air. 

I like to keep the house cool in the winter.  It would result in less drying out of the air by the furnace, compared to keeping the house at a higher temp.  Between 17 C and 19 C is very comfortable for me.  The piano tuning does still get affected by the humidity swings.  However, I do my own tuning and try to keep on top of any shifts.  Usually a touch up tuning once a week, sometimes even once a day is needed.  But that is just me being nit-picky.  I'm very particular about the tuning in my instrument. 

Some of my friends have noticed that if they keep their grand fully closed when not playing, it improves the stability of the tuning and how long one can go between tunings. 

[icefox]

Ha!! Once mystery solved.

Oh - I forgot to say.  You mentioned the Kawai master technician inserted a hook between the strings...  What he was doing was leveling the tri-chords (the 3 strings) so when the hammer contacted the strings the vibrations were activated exactly at the same time.  He did this by feeling the 3 strings per note - feeling which one was higher and then pulling up the other two - with the hook - to match.