First question, how do you say Kawai, Kuh-why or Kuh-why-ee?

I have a GE-1 Kawai that is about 16 years old. It is also my studio piano so it gets a lot of wear and tear. I have been thinking about replacing it. It has a few clicks and things that I think could easily be repaired. But I still love my Kawai, probably some sentimental attachment too. I was told by one appraiser that Kawai pianos with this much use only last about 30 years and was offered about $5,000 as a trade in.

I have been looking at Steinways. I can't afford a new Steinway but have seen a few rebuilts in my price range.

My questions are:

If a piano is tuned and maintained how long should it last? My piano currently is played about 20 -25 hours a week.

What kinds of repairs should need to be done to a piano?

At this point if I buy a new piano it should be my last piano. So do I go all out and get a Steinway?

Does it make more sense to buy a new Kawai, Boston or other moderately priced piano or a rebuilt Steinway?

Thanks in advance for your help.

1. The structure of the piano will outlast the parts. Plate, board, bridges, case, frame have years of life left.
2. With that much play, I would bet that it needs key bushings. And it probably needs new hammers and shanks as well.
If I were you, I'd hire a tech to come out and evaluate what needs to be done to your piano if you plan to keep it.
3. That's a decision you'll have to make.
4. There are other high end brands to consider besides Steinway, too. Kawai, Boston, and other brands could provide you with years of use. You and your banker will have to discuss the logistics....

A tuner told me that my piano needed to voiced. I then had a tuner/technician come out and he is the one that said I needed a better piano. He suggested this was ok for teaching but I would enjoy playing a better piano. As a quick fix to the voicing he put a piece of sandpaper to the left of the action which moved the hammers over just a little bit so the strings were not hitting in the old grooves. I liked the change in the sound, it seemed a bit brighter, but new clicking sounds emerged so I took the sandpaper out. I wasn't ready to let someone experiment with chemicals, softeners, needling, etc. in hopes of finding the sound that I liked. A third assessor says it needs to be regulated.

I am trying to learn as much as I can about pianos and their care before I make my purchase.

abcdefg,

Shaping the hammers, regulation, and voicing would make a big difference in evenness of touch and tone. It will cost some money, but it will be worth it if you plan to keep the piano.

A larger piano would be more pleasurable to play. While the GE-1 is a solid little workhorse, they are compromised--notably at the low end--by only being 5' 1". An RX 2(5'10") or RX 3(6'1"), or other brand of larger piano would be worth looking into. A Steinway that has been rebuilt could be good, depending on the quality of the work done.

I do not agree with the idea of sand paper. Doing this will force the hammers to strike where they are not accustomed to strike. Not to mention, the hammers already have grooves in them that no doubt need removing. Many hammers very well could already be out of alignment with the strings as it is. Forcing them over one way or the other will only cause more wear and could easily cause damage to the hammer flanges by forcing the hammers between the present grooves. As soon as you use the soft pedal, you are hitting yet another spot in the hammer. These "clicks" could very well be part of a loose hammer flange pin now or loose screws or it could be other things too for that matter.

I agree with Dave S. A good regulation, hammer filing possibly hammer and shank replacement and key rebushing is likely in order. It is not always necessary to replace the instrument you love. It can be a lot less expensive to fix er up than to try and find another one. BUT, a GOOD, reputable technician needs to be located to do the work properly.

I want to know a lot more before I buy my next piano, which will probably be my last piano. I want to try lots of different pianos also. I am going to order Larry Fine's book. What else can I do?

Just take your time and play lots of pianos. Hammer grooves need to be filed out of hammers before aligning them or the hammers will tend to find the old grooves, which stresses and loosens the hammer flange. There are no quick fixes to voicing. A piano played like yours should be regulated and voiced once a year and tuned 4 times per year.

And to answer your initial question, in Western countries we usually pronounce it "Ku Why." In Japanese the vowels are each pronounced, so it is "Kah Wah ee."

:-)

As others have said, a nice hammer shaping, regulation and voicing will make your piano sound and perform much better. But a larger piano is always nice! Besides the better bass tone, larger pianos usually have a better action as well - if for no other reason, because of longer keys.

KawaiDon please explain longer keys. I understand longer strings in a larger piano but thought the action was basically the same size.

Thanks,

Longer strings often demand bigger heavier hammers to drive them. Longer key sticks encourage better leverage advantage to move the bigger hammers. The "longer" refers to the part of the key inside the piano where you don't see.

Very interesting. I had assumed hammers were all the same. How do the heavier hammers affect the sound?

Your book sounds perfect to me. I will look for it.

The longer the keys are, the more consistent the touch is from the front to the back of the playing surface of the keys. With a very short keyboard, the pivot point will be close to the tail end of the keytop, so the finger has to work very hard to press the keys down. With a longer key, the rear portion of the playing surface is farther from the pivot point, and this makes the piano nicer to play.

This is one reason (besides tone, of course) serious pianists prefer 7 foot grand pianos, because the length of the keys is quite nice when you get up to this size range.

Hammer weights are matched to the scale of the piano (string lengths, tension, soundboard mass and stiffness, etc) to produce the tone desired. The designer chooses the hammer that will drive the strings most efficiently and produce a big tone, while not sacrificing control in the action and sustain. It's actually a very complicated subject, not easily condensed into a short message.

I am sure it is not a simple thing to explain. But I think I understand the basics of what you are telling me. Every time I learn something new about the differences between pianos and their construction I feel like I have an "aha" moment.

I think of the key and hammer as a seesaw. I put weight into one side and the hammer on the other side goes up and strikes the string. I know that is very simplified and there are other things going on but that is the best I can do for now. I can see how the pivot point would change with a longer keyboard.

Thanks,

There are other factors as well, but the seesaw is a good analogy. With a very long seesaw, say, 500 meters long, a vertical movement creates a very large radius arc. With a 5 meter seesaw, moving the same amount of vertical movement, the arc has a sharper curve.

This affects the interface between the capstan and wippen at the back, as well as the key / finger at the front. There is also more friction at the balance point in the key with a short key, because of these factors.

The balance of the seesaw can always be made correct no matter what length it is. The front to back ratio is generally the same in small keyboards as long ones (or at least, within the same acceptable range of ratios). But the feel is quite different.

I can't wait to play a few different pianos, look inside and start to become more aware of all of this.

Has any manufacturer ever considered putting longer than usual keys on their shorter models or is this not possible for some reason?

Some older models of player pianos had part of the player mechanism above the keys, between the stretcher and the plate. In these instruments, the keys are longer than standard due to the space needed for the player mechanism.

Too long is a problem if the keys are not rigid enough. That is often the case with old players.

Well, it does tend to look strange if the front part of a grand piano case is out of proportion with the tail end. Also the smaller pianos need to cost less, so the design should not be too expensive, and shorter front and action does save cost. As BDB said, longer keys need to be designed for adequate stiffness.

In upright pianos you sometimes see key length listed as a specification, as a deeper upright cabinet can allow a longer key length and therefore slightly better touch.