Welcome back!
Continuing my research on the “old families” of the piano business I came across these videos about the Kawai brand. Kawai, while not an American brand, has had a major impact on the American market. Kudos to Worldpiano for posting these videos.
Making Of A Kawai Grand Piano Pt.1
Koichi Kawai founded a company in 1927 that has, for 3 generations, sought to combine traditional craftstmanship with the efficiencies of computer-aided manufacturing in building an excellent piano.
Making Of A Kawai Grand Piano Pt.2
A few good examples of Kawai’s quest for excellence:
- In 1997, Kawai became the first company in the piano industry to receive the ISO 14001 certification for excellence in environmental management.
- Kawai uses ABS Styran instead of wood for several action parts that are most susceptible to breakage or swelling due to humidity. While I have historically opposed the use of plastics in piano actions, this one (actually a polymer composite) has several decades of evidence to support that it does work.
- “Circle of Refinement”- This is what sets Kawai apart for me. One of the first times I saw a Kawai was around 1980. The Baldwin dealer I was working with had just started carrying Kawai also. I was used to a Baldwin coming from the factory needing five or six tunings and a small amount of regulation to be ready for the sales floor. This first Kawai was shipped from Japan to Houston, Texas, then trucked to San Antonio before being uncrated. It was then shipped about another 100 miles to a store in Kerrville, Texas, where it only required touch-up of a few unisons to be ready for the sales floor. I have seen this a few more times, and heard of it many more times since then. The Kawai craftsmen invest the extra time and effort needed to make sure that one of their instruments is ready when it leaves the factory.
The Kawai Legacy. http://www.kawaius.com/main_links/legacy_home.html
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
