I have written on here many times about the problems with my new Kawai RX6. Problems with the tone on certain notes in the bass, hammer voicing due to harsh tones, damper issues, etc. The dampers have been rectified by a MPT. But I still have tonal issues with some bass notes - some a harsh and some have been over voiced. I remember one of my techs doing this. The MPT said the piano was 'disfunctional'.

Anyway I had the piano tuned just before Christmas, the weather here was mild to warm, then hot, but not much humidity. The piano went out of tune in two weeks! In fact EVERY time it's been tuned the tune does not hold. The unisons become a little fuzzy as they tend to creep a bit. The tenor area seems the worst, the really long wire strings and the bi chord copper strings seem to be unstable. Quite a few of the 17th sound awful and beat wrong. Can't work out if it's too fast or slow.... Fast I think. Very obvious. when testing they stand out like crazy.
The high treble on the piano is fine. If anything I have noticed the bass area seems to fall in pitch slightly, even more when the pitch has been raised, but that's another story.

Without going into too much talk here, I believe my piano has been compromised. Before I bought it the piano sat in a shop in a dark corner underneath an air conditioning duct for about two years. The air conditioning is evoraporative water cooled type as they use here in southern states of Australia. I was sold the piano from the warehouse, but remembered it as fine, as I had no idea of its real condition. I had played it. In the shop a few times and it seemed fine. That was before I decided to buy that model.

When it was delivered I was in for the shock of my life! In the day light as it came in their was a huge hunk broken out of the back of the case, ALL the wires strings were rusty, the copper bass strings were tarnished, the piano was filthy dirty and full of dirt and dust,the case had scratches on it, and the rust was on the strings near the tuning pins and on some pins also.

I've mentioned this to quite a few techs and the sales people at the shop, but they tend to turn a blind eye and dont comment. To be honest I had sort of dismissed this in the "hope"that my piano is okay...

As a qualified hobby technician I touched up the unisons on a few occasions and noticed some of the pins were a bit on the lose side...not as tight as the neighbor. Inoticed the pins have a sort of lose spot, then a tighter spot. They dont turn smooth. One would think a new piano would have nice smooth tight pins. Hence the tuning instability. But all the techs say it's ok! Are they not wanting to rock the boat or do they have vested interests, or are they trying to protect the dealer? I don't know.

I'm at the point where I need to sell, exchange, or get rid of the piano! Im really over it. I'm no longer wanting to play it as it displeases me. I get not pleasure from it. A piano must be in perfect tune for it to be beautiful. This one is not.

My question to my friends on piano world is: do you think this piano has been compromised due to spending the first few years of its life sitting under a water cooled air conditioning duct with its lid up for the entire time? By the way the lid has a warp in it, to make matter worse. What is the effect. On the piano of rusty strings?? They were all pitted with rust, the hammers had rust marks on them, they had to be filed and shaped to remove the rust marks.

The rust has been removed somewhat from the exposed strings but on close inspection there is a lot of rust on the long wire strings under the bass copper wound strings. Which can't be removed.

In hindsight I feel I should never had taken delivery of the instrument. But I was so excited to get it I didn't want to go through another situation with the dealer, as they had already sent me another piano prior which was a different and cheaper model with ringing bass string issues. That was another story..

Please folks, your opinions and ideas would be gratefully apppreciated. I firmly believe this expensive piano is seriously compromised. Should I request a replacement piano under the warranty? It would not be worth much with rusty strings!


Thank you very much.

You are correct in your second last paragraph; I would have never accepted delivery of this item in that condition.

Thank you Dan. It's only now that I am realizing my terrible mistake. I've had it for two years and it's been nothing but trouble.

Also it seems the hammers have been effected by the moisture in the dealers shop too. Hence my tone problems.

It seems that you have a record of problems with this present instrument following delivery. Hopefully the work done and the appointments you have had to make with local technicians have been catalogued by invoice, or perhaps photos.

If the instrument has any warranty period left, I would suggest you act promptly to have it exchanged out.

Remember that dealers do not carry the warranty; the warranty is carried by the maker. Contact Kawai in Australia directly about this.

Another thing you could try is to contact Don Maninno here on this forum. While he is the rep for Kawai USA he may be able to assist you in the required process of replacement there and the appropriate contact people.

Have you written any letters to the store owner? Hopefully yes.......If not, it's certainly time to do that.

I don't like air of any sort blowing on a piano. Damp air will certainly rust strings, and rusty strings need to be replaced, not just cleaned. Be prepared to show the rust isn't from your home environment, however. You have made an error in waiting much too long on this. The delay might cost you money in that if you can't document everything - you may pay a portion of any repair, or get less credit than you would otherwise. You have to see the store's position - Where did the rust occur? Most piano stores will keep pianos away from known moisture sources, but I have seen water leak on pianos that were eventually sold, and I've seen a few newly delivered pianos with moisture stains on the keys - so water damage does happen - and pianos with moisture damage do get sold.

Due to the time that has passed, the ball is going to be in your court to prove the store damaged the piano, I would think.

You should have refused delivery. The dealer doesn't care about you now because they have your money.

What store did you get it from? No, a new piano should not be full of dust, dirty, scratched, have a warped lid, rusty and tarnished strings, etc. A piano should sound nice, look nice and stay in tune, at the very least. It is not doing ANY of those things, and your dealer is being very unhelpful, to say the least. I think you should definitely have the dealer change the piano to a new RX-6 free from defects. I am from Melbourne, BTW. Good luck with your piano.

Did you buy the piano as new or "as is" from the dealer?

I believed I was buying a new piano, that had been on display in the store for quite some time. I trusted the dealer in that the piano was in as new condition. When I bought this piano, it was stored in the dealer's warehouse for some reason and I was not able to properly inspect it. I simply assumed they would deliver a piano in excellent condition. The piano I received was in shocking condition. As a regular and known customer of this dealer I thought they would look after me.

I have told them about it and they know of my issues, but my words fall on deaf ears. They don't seem to care.

When the piano was in the shop, it was a very dim and poorly lit showroom and I had no idea of the rust on the strings. Or the scratches etc. The dealer has since moved pianos to a different level of the building. I wonder why?

At this point I would contact Kawai directly.

I understand your frustration. I also think you should talk to Kawai directly. If you are lucky they might be able to help you out. It is just too bad we didn't have this discussion back in 2009 when you created this thread about your piano...

Who was the dealer you bought it from?

I purchased this piano from Allans Music Melbourne. But the piano was delivered from their warehouse which is a piano carrier. I don't know the conditions of this place at all.

As I said I was so shocked about the rust (and the condition of the piano) that I immediately began removing the rust from the exposed wire strings with the recommended fine grade steel wool. This was quite successful, but some rust remains under the copper strings.

My concern is that the piano won't hold its tune very well - every time Ive had it tuned it unisons creep and octaves go out slightly - enough to really be a bother to me as a performer. If the strings suffered rust, (there is still rust up near the tuning pins on the strings there and cant be rubbed with steel wool due to the felt underneath) my big question is has the moisture problem that caused the rust in the first place impacted in any way on the tuning system and pins/pinblock? From my studies I beleive rust on strings can cause inharmonicity issues. Does this also cause lack of sustain and tuning problems?

Also in what way does moisture effect the hammers?
As I have said most of my techs have not been to interested in following up my issues

Could this be a reason for tuning instability? I'm not qualified enough to know or judge here. It would be up to the professionals to know.

Thanks for all your input. I appreciate it greatly.

They should have delivered the piano sitting in their showroom, not one from a warehouse. I can say that they don't really care about pianos as much as they should, as most of the pianos in the City (bourke street) showroom are sitting quite out of tune right now. I can't give advice about the hammers or the rust, that's more for the experts here (the piano technicians ) to give advice, I'm just a mere piano player. You should have asked for a refund or a replacement when you found out about all this junk. Go back and ask Allans for a new RX6. They shouldn't do this to you. Or anyone. You have been the subject of a bait and switch, i'm sorry to say. Don't be scared. You should stand up for what you should have gotten two years ago. I wish you luck.

I copied this from Allan's website.


9. Complaints Policy Summary
Allans Music + Billy Hyde may, from time to time, receive complaints from its customers. This document summarises Allans Music + Billy Hyde’s Complaints Policy.
When you make a complaint please provide the following:

the circumstances leading to the complaint;
what you would like the outcome of the complaint to be;
the store and, if possible, the staff member(s) involved;
the time that the complaint arose;
what, if anything, has done to resolve the complaint to date; and
your contact details including telephone number and a mailing or e-mail address.

Allans Music + Billy Hyde defines a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction or grievance made by a customer or member of the public with any product or service of Allans Music + Billy Hyde, not including a request for information.
Allans Music + Billy Hyde takes every customer complaint seriously and will seek to deal courteously with and resolve your complaint as quickly as reasonably possible whilst realistically managing your expectations.
Allans Music + Billy Hyde will, within 24 hours of receiving a customer complaint, attempt to contact you to explain the next steps in the complaint process, to obtain any further information needed from you to deal with the complaint and to give you an estimate of the time in which your complaint will be resolved.
Unless otherwise agreed with you, Allans Music + Billy Hyde will attempt to contact you on (at least) a weekly basis to inform you of progress in resolving the complaint. You can contact the relevant store at any time to check on the progress of your complaint.
All complaints are recorded and analysed to ensure that our treatment of complaints complies with this policy. Recurring problems will be identified and feedback provided with the aim of improving our service and complaints process. We will periodically review our complaints process to identify any need for improvement.
Allans Music + Billy Hyde will attempt to resolve each complaint within 2 weeks of receiving the complaint. This may not always be possible but, in any event, Allans Music + Billy Hyde will keep you informed of the likely timescale for resolving the complaint.
If you have exhausted the avenues for addressing your complaint within Allans Music + Billy Hyde or find these avenues unacceptable you may wish to seek redress through other avenues available to you such as your State/Territory Fair Trading authority.


You should contact their head office and forget about the local store

The dealer was very helpful to me at the time as they swapped 3 other pianos for me. It is a very long story. Each time I purchased a piano I was unhappy with it. Sounds strange, but true. I was dealing with financial issues at the time and trying to stretch my $ and realized in the end that I needed to spend much more to get the piano I really wanted in the first place - a LARGE piano, as I have always liked a good bass response. Each time I changed my mind, the price went up considerably! Good for the dealer, but very expensive for me. I am grateful for them for changing the instruments and thank them very much.

I have communicated with other members on piano world who have recieved pianos on approval - to try them in their home. I think this an excellent idea. Takes the pressure off the customer having to return them. Pianos always sound different in the home, and one is able to see them in good light if the dealers shop is dark. It turned out for me very difficult to judge pianos in a shop.

So after receiving no more than four pianos, the RX6 was the last. I just could not put myself through yet another piano change over to send it back and began cleaning, vacumming and polishing. It was a terribly stressful time. I used the recommended low grade steel wool (as suggested by A. Reblitz, piano technician) to remove the rust from the visible wire strings. I was unable to remove rust from underneath the strings.

I am still very concerned about the piano's obvious exposure to moister and the effect on the tuning sytem/strings/sound quality so I will take up the matter with the dealer and the manufacturer and hope for the best.

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Hi everyone! I contacted Kawai head office two weeks ago and they are negotiating with the dealer's managers at the moment as to find a suitable outcome. I do not know at this stage what will transpire. When paying the huge amounts of money involved with purchasing new grand pianos we all deserve one which will at least stay in tune for a reasonable time and be free from rust.