Measurements Kawai please

[Antares]

Don Manino wrote:

>210cm is the R-1 model.
>
>As you noticed, the action spread is not adjustable on this piano and as 
>such Kawai does not publish an official specification for it.  By my 
>measurement it is 113mm.
>
>The factory touchweight specification is nominally 57 grams for this model, 
>so a range of  57 - 60 grams is not unreasonable.
>
>An increase that is larger in the bass may indicate that the rollers 
>(knuckles) are beginning to wear. Check the shape carefully, bolster if 
>necessary, bush the roller skin and lubricate with teflon powder. Then 
>re-measure your touch weight.
>
>The key height for this model is ~67mm.
>
>Regarding your other service, I was wondering; Did you measure high 
>friction in the action centers? You might want to re-think your application 
>of lubricants here - if the centers are tight, repinning is preferable to 
>lubricating. If you did not measure tight centers, lubricating should be 
>unnecessary.
>
>Kawai America does not normally recommend lubricants in the action centers. 
>Especially petroleum based lubricants are very harmful. You mentioned CLP, 
>which is a sort of generic name for me, not indicating what it is made of, 
>but if it is petroleum based it will damage the action.
>
>Kawai Japan sometimes recommends a light application of silicone lubricant, 
>but this should not be applied without cause.
>
>McLube on the keypins may also increase wear of the key bushings. Plain 
>Teflon powder (such as TFL-50, which does not have the base coating 
>material) is a little better for this application.
>
>For more information in your part of the world I would suggest you contact 
>Kawai Europe:
>	101233.2767@compuserve.com
>
>They may have slightly different service recommendations than Kawai 
>America.
>
>Don Mannino RPT, Manager
>Kawai Piano Technical Support, U.S. and Canada
>(Don_Mannino@compuserve.com or DonMannino@worldnet.att.net)

Antares writes back:

Thank you Mr Manino for your explaination...Since the instrument I 
described is only 5 years old, and since the owner does not play it very 
much (maybe 30-45 minutes a day), the action is in a relatively good 
state. The rollers are not worn really and from the stringmarks on the 
hammers, one can tell that the instrument has not been played very much.
The only thing I noticed, was that the centerpins were just a bit slow, 
due to humidity.
If I say CLP, I mean Protek CLP, highly reccomended earlier on the list 
for lubricating centerpins.
Anyway, these centerpins do not go slow enough for repinning, and the 
lubricant made the downweight "measurable".
As I understand from your words, the downweight of this type of Kawai is 
almost 60 grams, so...now I know that this is the standard meant for this 
instrument, and I will inform my customer of this.
I was just wondering why nothing helped to make it lighter.

Thank you for your words of advice.

Antares