Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum My Shigeru Kawai SK7 has arrived!!!!

heres the video for the move:
[video:youtube]cVc7DnnkRvk[/video]

That was one of the most harrowing things I've ever witnessed. Your Kawai dealer is out of his mind using these guys to move his pianos!!

Wow!!!... You had the perfect day for piano moving.

I agree!

Those first few minutes were one scary suspense flick.

I mean it! Even though I figured the outcome couldn't have been too bad, I was just about as scared as with a Hitchcock movie.

haha, at least the piano was fully insured by the movers!

yeah that week rained a lot. it just happened to be not raining on that day which was really good!

If I ever move house or need to relocate the piano, I'll probably call some different guys, I watched other videos of piano moves and they seemed to take much more care for the piano, eg. wrapping it up, using some lyre jigs instead of lyre tipping.

they did claim that they were the 'only ones' that can do a move like this. I'm pretty sure many other movers can also do it but since they are fully insured, I guess I can relax a little.



I got to give them some credit though, The piano went to the 2nd story using a crane and another set of stairs up to the piano room without significant damage. there were some marks where the belts strapped on to the piano when hoisting it up though. They'll get those marks sorted out this week.

Your new piano is absolutely gorgeous. You are soooo lucky!

That was awesome! Looks beautiful in the room. How does it sound and feel?

zerox61, it scared the daylights out of me to watch that. If it were my piano, I don't think I could have watched. I am glad your fine instrument is mostly undamaged in spite of the movers' best efforts.

OG Ryder,

The sound is awesome (although out of tune). I bought a nice rug and stuck it under the piano. I don't really hear and differences but that may be because I haven't played enough to get used to the sound without rug before sticking one in.

The action is really nice. I noticed that I could hear the action mechanism clicking away as I play in the high treble when lifting up really quickly. I'm not sure if this is normal (as in this volume of the action) but either way, I'm sure the MPA would sort it out on his visit.
I also noticed that when I do staccato on the bass side, the keys will jiggle up and down (maybe 2-3 small jiggles) due to momentum. I don't recall my upright doing that but since it is such a different piano, I can't really compare.

When I go play my Yamaha C108 it makes it feel like a little toy haha. We will probably keep the yamaha at the moment instead of selling it because the 'practice pedal' is good for late night practice runs!

Probably keep the C108 until I get a decent keyboard though.

I suppose this is the technician in me talking, but I hope you keep the shades closed in that room. That sunlight on the piano makes it look pretty, but it's not going to help tuning stability any!

Which leads to a question I've been wondering about.

Is it 'just' tuning stability that is a problem from that, or does it also sort of ruin the piano?

I've been concerned about this because it took a while for me to realize that this was an issue, and for some years, my current piano was getting sunlight like that.

Sunlight will fade the finish.

But nothing bad (other than unstable tuning) about the innards?

Sunlight, in this environment, represents radiated heat over a large body (the piano). This type of heating is very uneven and will affect both the temperature (and therefore dimensional stability of the structure) and the flow of moisture. That will damage the piano, potentially shortening its life and requiring more maintenance (tuning + nuisance issues). I suggest using common sense to mitigate the sunlight coming in. A simple test is to place your hand on the sunny part of the piano. If it feels noticeably warmer than the non-sunny parts, you're not doing enough to mitigate.

Important note:

For the money you paid I sure wouldn't have let ANYBODY move that piano until it was fully wrapped up and blanketed first, as you could have avoided those strap marks, too!

Did these movers offer you a cheaper price on account of their verbal assurance they could do the job without damages?

Sounds completely unprofessional, to me...

Congrats on your new Shigeru. This is an awesome piano and I hope you have many happy years with it.

pv88,

Actually, I have not spoken to the piano movers about price. it was all arranged by the dealer as part of my deal. The estimated price was ~$600 for the move (most expensive was crane hire) according to the dealer.

about the sunlight, I do not open the blinds. I am also planning to install some tinting; maybe 45% ones to block out 55% of the light and '99%' UV. to make it better for the piano.

I'm not sure if I should get the reflective tints; it would be really good for my room but I'm sure it would annoy the heck out of neighbours.

Anyway, the piano is getting a tune this afternoon and some scruff marks polished off. Yay!

I'm mega surprised that a dealer who sells Shigeru Kawais would send movers like that -- at least for the Shigeru Kawais.

Luckily everything went pretty smoothly.

Enjoy your new instrument.


Jeff
GPH

Thanks guys.

Here are some more treats =p


DSC01275 by wang.zj, on Flickr


DSC01273 by wang.zj, on Flickr


DSC01282 by wang.zj, on Flickr


DSC01278 by wang.zj, on Flickr