---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment List Just tuned a Kawai vertical, a CX-5H. I have always thought of Kawai as one of the better brands of piano. But the design elements of this piano make me wonder if they continue to aspire to quality. First of all, this piano had a soundboard with the grain orientation vertical! I had always read that the best orientation for soundboard grain on a vertical was diagonal. Cheap pianos had the grain horizontal because it took less wood (lengthwise) to do it this way. I've never seen vertical grain orientation before, but I'm guessing it's for the same reason, and it ain't because it sounds better this way. The tone of this piano? Well, the top two octaves were pretty weak. Not much sustain, not much brightness. There were also no wooden frame support beams in the back. Completely open. Again, from what I understand beams bracing the frame are there to help tuning stability by stiffening the structure of the piano. Perhaps, just a coincidence, but this piano, which was one of three that I tuned in the same building, was the only one that needed a pitch raise. Following a tuning 6 months ago (by another tuner), this piano was 35 cents flat in the center, and nearly 100 cents flat in octave 7. The bass strings were generally 15 to 25 cents flat. The other two pianos were within 4 cents of A440. I also noticed that the action had only two brackets attaching it to the plate, one on each end. There was a hole in the plate at the tenor break where a third bracket could have been attached, but there was nothing on the action there. Perhaps this plate is shared by another model in the Kawai line that does have a third bracket there. Or maybe they elminated the bracket after designing the plate with the hole already there. So maybe I'm misinformed about some of the above elements of pianos in general. If so, I'm sure someone will enlighten me. And that's what this list is all about. But from my humble viewpoint, the Kawai CX-5H has quite a few corners cut, resulting in a piano that makes me contemplate Kawais in general. Tom Sivak Chicago PTG Associate ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/f3/32/29/9e/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC