Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards KAWAI MP10 Arrived! Couple of issues... (!)

Oh, come on... This is absolutely normal! All the keys have some side clearance, so you can move them slightly to the left or the right. That's also true for my CA63, but no key is touching another key, everything in this respect is smooth. You should be able to play absolutely perfect with such a keyboard. I've also seen this on may acoustic pianos too. Try to move with your hand with gentle force from the left to the right over the whole keyboard (or from the right to the left), after that the key spaces should look much more regular.

It's more than side-to-side spacing - the keys themselves are tipped. And it is NOT absolutely normal. My Kurzweil didn't have this problem, my Roland didn't have this problem... and my new Kawai won't have this problem!

It probably is an easy adjustment but with no technician even CLOSE to me, Kawai/Sweetwater offered to replace the piano free of charge and who would refuse that?

Curt

It's hard for me to judge from the angled picture how bad it is, but considering you buy the MP10 especially for it's high-end keybed I can imagine that you don't want it to resemble the same flaws that inferior piano-models have. Too bad they don't have a technician nearby that can perform the (minor?) adjustments on your unit; now it takes more time, is more hassle and more expensive to resolve the problem (replacing the whole unit of 33kg).

Oh I totally agree. Good service you've had there.

You are absolutely correct. The keybed is THE REASON I selected this piano and I want it to be perfect (as it turns out, the internal piano sounds are also very, very good). It's actually worse than the picture shows. My finger catches on that ridge and because it's tipped it depresses at a different angle than the other keys. I can feel it in my finger muscle... very distracting.


But I still get to play THIS one until the new one arrives and it isn't costing me a penny extra! I've spent the last day or so dialing in my perfect Concert Grand preset and saved it to the USB drive for immediate transfer into the new piano when it gets here. I've also been learning the ins and outs of the recorder and MIDI-to-audio tools. It isn't wasted time at all. I just have to stay out of that particular octave when I'm playing right now!

Curt

But the engineer in me is DYING to pop this thing open and take a look at that key mechanism!!!

Curt

Talking about being inquistivie with these types of electronic instruments , I am currently building my own electronic drum set. The set I wanted to purchase would have been about $ 800 because I wanted drum heads that were mesh construction to give a more realsitic acoustic feel/bounce. I only wanted to spend about $300 so I took the brains out of a tabletop drum kit I had, which had great drum sounds, but terrible rubber drum pads , and I desoldered all the rubber pad connections from the circuit board, then purchased goodwoods mesh drum heads { 4 of them for $120} and resoldered those connections to the circuit board and put all the circuit boards in a thick carboard christmas box and glued them in so they wont move, and then I have to put all the pieces on my aluminum drum rack today. I am also gonna put a set of 4 ohm / 3 way 120 watt stereo speakers onto the drum rack

Curt, keep us informed when the new unit arrives and if it has , or has not similar problems. Would be interesting to find out if these problems are exemplary or perhaps a flaw of the first batch of instruments. I guess it's only your unit , or a perhaps few units (see similar RM3 key un-eveness in another thread).

I shall!

Can you link me to that other thread please?

So Curt did you get your replacement?I had the same exact uneven key issues a couple years ago with three different MP8 II's.Also when playing fast one hand arpegios sometimes my fingers would catch a key and the key would pop up a quarter inch and stay stuck there till I pushed it down again, very annoying.Also the the front lips on some of the keys were very sharp.I went through three copies of the MP8II and it was the same story with all three.I finally said enough, returned the third one and bought the Roland RD700GX which was kinda a bummer cause otherwise the action on the Kawai was the closest to my Steinway M, the RD700GX key depth is to deep compared to my Steinway, and I have trouble playing smooth on faster pieces like the Chopin Etudes.

So I pretty much have given up trying to play anything serious on the RD and have kept it as a controller for my studio, but it rarely gets use.Now after combing threads on how to clean the Roland ivory feel keys, I see people have been having problems with premature key wear, so I'm thinking maybe of selling the RD, and have an interest in the newer MP10, but your un-even key issue is reminensant of my MP8II problems.So please let us know how it turned out with your replacement.

Chris

Kawai had better get its act together re its actions. When the MP8 II was introduced, I saw posts on a German language forum that complained about the same problems. If mail order sellers have too many returns, they'll stop selling these DP's.

Kawai dealers probably have a repair service that they deal with, and that service should have a tech who can come out and make the adjustments, but that eats into profits.

IMO local sellers would be wise to make a followup phone call, to make sure that everything is OK. When people in U.S. buy a Shigeru Kawai, the price includes a followup visit by a skilled technician from Japan. If Kawai would build such a visit into the selling price of its premium DP's, these action threads would be talking about how well that company provides customer service.

Yeah that would be nice, but when you're talking about a stage piano that sells for around $2500, there's no way Kawai could possibly be able to work in a visit from an authorized Kawai technician. When you're paying $15,000+ for a grand piano, that's entirely different.

Followup phones call are free. Dealers probably have a shop that handles repairs. The tech(s) there should be able to handle these problems, when they occur. I expect that we tend to hear about problems, even tho only some boards have them. So I'm suggesting a followup phone call to all and a tech's visit only when there are problems.

I actually was on the phone a few times with Kawai.Pretty much all the problems could have been fixed by a skilled technician, key height regulated, corners sanded smooth, and a strip glued in place to keep the keys from popping up, but Kawai just told me to exchange the unit for another one.They were not willing to send a tech out free of charge.I figured whats the chance of having the same issues with another sample.Well after the second sample had the same problem, I liked the board enough to give it one more try and ordered from another dealer on the other side of the US thinking surely the third one had to be right, nope.Three strikes.I'm really hopeful the MP10's are more consistant, and hope to see more reports here from satisfied users

Yes, I finally DID get my replacement (took a bit of time because of limited availability) and the action on this one was PERFECT!!

BUT!!!!!

It wouldn't even power UP! Total out of box FAILURE. After I had taken it out of the box and did a complete touch-evaluation of each key I was very optimistic because I already knew how it sounded from playing around on the one with the bad key action. I then plugged it in and powered it on. Saw the splash screen, saw the Concert Grand screen, and then about six different screens flew by over a period of about 2 seconds where it finally froze on a "system reset" equivalent-type of screen. No button response, no buttons would light up, and NO sound was produced.

At this point I now had TWO MP10s in my living room with gravestones on them!! Another call to Sweetwater/Kawai resulted in egg on their face again as they informed me that they could send me ANOTHER replacement when they get more in as once AGAIN they are out of stock.

Now the Kawai guy is out of the office until Monday and Sweetwater isn't returning my emails! Both pianos have been returned and I am without any piano at all for the first time in 7 years... good thing I have my Stratocaster to keep me sane!!

Curt

OK, Kawai has quality control issues. They'd better get it together quickly. Lots of folks stop by here, asking for advice re DP's. Having us point them to threads re problems with Kawai's premium action is not a good thing.

That people can return 'boards for a new one is also not a good thing, if that's a recuring issue. People buy 'boards, to play them, not to exchange them.

Wow sorry about that Curt.Sounds like your going down the same road I did.Hopefully third time will be a charm for you.Thats good news the action was perfect!In the mean time guess you can polish your guitar chops ehh :)I've been sick almost a month now and my new ipod touch 4g and nanostudio have been keeping me sane, my small hands are finally paying off lol.Keep us posted.

Chris

It's just getting ridiculous... Such a shame! Kawai, come on!

Maybe there's a key combination which would make it reset itself, like for example pressing two or three buttons together while powering it on? I think Kawai James may help on that.

About the crooked keys.
If its got convetional wooden keys just open 'er up, remove a few keys get a hammer and a thin piece of wood a couple of taps and you've qualified as a bona fide piano technician!
Then send in your invoice.