Kawai

[Ronald R Shiflet]

	I hope my original post about Kawai was not misunderstood.  Let
me say first that Kawai is one of my favorite pianos.  Their level of
precision and quality are amazing.  Tunability?...They're easy to tune.
	What I was trying to say is that you just cannot take a piano,
tune and regulate it, then strap down the parts during transit and
expect it to be perfect when you unstrap it at the other end.  It
doesn't matter who made the piano, when you uncrate it, it is going to
need some work and any dealer who doesn't prep his pianos is a fool.
	I've worked for dealers who tried to increase their margins a
little by selling Chinese pianos.  They lost big time when they paid their technicians to keep them running.  We would go out planning to tune
and end up leveling the keys also.  I have also uncrated $40,000 pianos
only to end up spending 4 days getting the glitches out and the parts
aligned.
	I'll be spending this morning, with my customer who recently
purchased a Korean grand.  I have told her for 5 years to buy a Kawai.
She got cheap and took the junker.  Now she's frustrated because it
won't play right.  Among other things I'll be telling her, I will tell
her that when she tunes it every 6 months, she'll need to plan on
spending an equal amount in repairs.  This is what became of the money
she originally saved.
	When you uncrate a Kawai, plan on spending 30 minutes regulating
and 3 tunings over the next 2 weeks.  Oh, how I wish, that all pianos
were this easy !!!

Ron Shiflet