Had the tuner in Thursday, for the first post-move tuning of the Kawai. The fellow was a former Piano Technician who knew his stuff. He got done with the tuning and I said, "By the way, my goal is to really tweak this piano to get the absolutely best sound I can out of it." He smiled and said, "That piano was an absolute joy to tune. Normally I take 45 minutes to tune a piano, but I spent an hour on this one, because I was enjoying it." Long story short, it sounds to me like Rick Jones did one heckuva job reconditioning my 1983 Kawai purchase. Rick, if you're on here, well done!

Congratulations on your new piano, I am glad you love it.

Did you buy this piano after visitng the store or did you order by telephone?

When I was in the market for a pre-owned piano, I actually exchanged a few emails and phone calls with Rick Jones pianos. They did strike me as very professional, reliable and reputable sellers.

However, I still could not make myself buy a piano without seeing and playing it first, in spite of the great online videos of Rick and his staff playing the pianos. I think they do sell a lot of pianos though.

Glad to hear you had a good experience with them.

Rickster

Yep! So far, so good. Stevester, I ordered over the telephone after watching every video of pianos that were in my range on the site. Rick actually knocked a bit off the price without my asking, because he was going to put his Kawais on sale the next week, and he didn't want me to have any hard feelings if I felt like I'd just missed a price reduction! Really nice guy, from what I can tell. He's a Terps fan, but nobody's perfect.

I bought a Baldwin L grand from Rick Jones this summer. I spoke to them on the phone about the piano and then I drove to their store (a very long drive from Illinois) to check it out before I bought it. On the phone Paul disclosed the piano had a small crack in the soundboard and told me about it's history. When I got there, they left me alone as I spent 4 hours playing it and inspecting it thoroughly. No pressure, no B.S. It was very refreshing. The price was very fair, and the piano was delivered when promised. It arrived in a remarkable state of tune and had been well prepped. I highly recommend these folks! Larry Larson

Steve - What model Kawai did you get? I am very interested in Rick Jones , seems they have the best deal going ,but have reservations about buying a 25yr old piano of which I have no "history".

Naked

Shaman, he had a Kawai KS2F (yes, graymarket, undoubtedly) that just blew the doors off everything else in its range, including the two Yamaha U3's he had with video streams. All right, I'll admit that I really wanted the Petroff that might still be on the site, but it was just 500 or so dollars more than I wanted to spend, and it's just too easy to get sucked into spending more than you want to spend with the justification that "it's just a little more." So, I resisted! They rebuilt or reconditioned everything that needed it, as best I can tell, and their warranty is 10 years, parts and labor, so I felt o.k. about buying it. That warranty is probably better than I could get from a new Kawai dealer selling me a used American made one, so I think I came out pretty well in the deal. The PT guy said he was really surprised by how new the piano looked and sounded, based on my telling him it was a 1983 model. Now, I'm in the Southeast, where the humidity today is around 58%, so I may have better luck with a Japanese piano than someone in Arizona would.

Thanks Steve - I too like the Kawai sound. Love the US-50 but am like you , it's just out of my price range. I live in Sav.Ga. It doesn't get much more humid than here. Sounds like a piano made for an "island" nation would work just fine here.......

I live not far from Rick Jones in Maryland, and he has a good reputation in this area. If I recall, my piano teacher (from one of the best local conservatories, Levine) recommended him to me, also.

:-) Shaman, yep! 60% humidity rocks, for Japanese pianos! One other nice thing about Rick is that you split costs with him on the move. I'm in upstate S.C., so it was 450 on my end to get it here. The bad news is I think the mover mentioned that I am almost at the cutoff point where it gets a bit more expensive (I think 600 is the next step, but don't quote me on that). I know this is tacky, but if you decide to order from Rick, maybe mention that Steve Davis gave his company a plug. I think I get a free tuning out of it! :-) (Honestly, though, I didn't start the thread with that in mind. Kawai's have legendary tuning stability, from what I understand, so I may not actually see the tuner for another 9 months to a year).

Christina, that's good to hear. It's always kind of comforting to know people have a reputation that they won't want to lose by doing anything too crazy.

Do any of you find any use in the recordings of the various pianos? They all sound the same to me. (Which is to say, they all sound pretty wonderful to me...)

I love the recordings. Log on almost daily to see what's new. Sounds better with the headphones instead of the cheap compotuer speakers!!!!

And NO....I don't play any better than I type :-(

Always Wanted, yes, definitely I can hear the difference. Obviously, it's not studio quality, but for instance, being able to hear Paul (at Rick Jones) play one of the Young Changs really steered me away from them (frankly, the bass sounded like it was coming from a toy piano). Rick plays a few things on a lot of the pianos, so you can get a pretty good sense of the brightness of the treble or the bass response from "Moonlight" or from that Irish-sounding thing he plays that has a lot of treble in it. By the way, if anyone can tell me what the name of the Archie Bunker end-credit piece that he plays in one thing is, I'll be overjoyed. (It's not "Those Were the Days," from the opening. It's the instrumental that runs while you see the rowhouses shot of Queens).

Steve, that piece is called "Remembering You" by Roger Kellaway.

Steve and/or Larry - Did y'all pay "sticker" price @ RJ's or was he willing to negotiate?

Naked

I've heard he discounts 50% off the prices on his website. He also generally throws in delivery anywhere in North or Central America.

Hmm . . . Steve, is this real information, a small joke, or competitor-bashing? If the latter, it really has no place here IMHO. I once corresponded with him concerning a piano. He never mentioned the possibility of a discount from his published price even after I specifically asked about it. He certainly did not offer me free shipping.

I assume you meant this as a joke, and I will take it as such. You may want to add a smiley, though, if that is the case.

With respect,

TX, yeah, I'm betting that was a joke! Definitely wasn't 50% off the price on the website! But shaman, yeah, I didn't haggle about the price, because frankly, I can't stand to haggle with people about price. Basically, I asked him if the piano was still available, he said, "let me go down onto the floor and make sure," and it was actually kind of funny, because there was a long pause, and then I heard the far-away sound of him playing one of the things he plays on lots of the videos, and I was thinking, "O.k. I guess he found it." When he came back on the phone, he gave me a little bit off, as I'd said earlier, because he was putting the Kawais on sale the next week, but I didn't ask for a discount and I wasn't expecting it. It was all really on the up and up. I think it took about a month for the piano to get here. Rick takes credit cards, which is nice, because I always feel like it's nice to have a credit-card company behind you if you wind up having a nasty surprise from a vendor.

Time for:

CLARIFICATION AND APOLOGY III

Steve - You missed your calling , should have been a comedian instead of a Snake Oil salesman..

Naked

Rick and I have been friendly competitors since he went into business. We have a gread deal of mutual respect.

I purposely left out the smiley...

Where is that Devil smiley when you need it?

"Free delivery anywhere in North or Central America"???

G-d, you guys are easy!

Okay, I took the hook, but I'm not used to seeing you "trolling."