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After over 2 months of waiting, I received my MP11 yesterday via FedEx yesterday morning. The box was in good shape. It was too much to carry upstairs by myself, so I waited until I had help this morning. We carried it upstairs, unboxed, set on the stand, plugged in, and NOTHING. Dead. Tried different power outlets. Nothing. I am either a huge moron or I have a dead unit. I'm inclined to believe the latter. Any ideas?

Did you hook it up to anything to produce sound? Try it with headphones. No built in speakers with the MP11.

Yes, I have the output jacks hooked up to my amplifier and speakers. The screen does not even power on nor any other lights, so it's more than just not producing any sound unfortunately.

Bummer, that's a huge let down. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Then check the chord, if its good and fits tight in the socket then you probably have a bad unit.

Checked, and yes, I fear you are correct.

(I suppose you are pressing the power on switch on the back panel, not just plugging the piano to AC)

My dealer contacted Kawai who contacted me this evening. Juan from Kawai told me that sometimes a cord/cable inside is set too tight when assembled and can partially dislodge during shipment. He told me that because the unit is portable I would need to bring it to a service center for repair. I advised that is unacceptable since the unit was purchased brand new from an authorized dealer. I waited 2 months to get it and it won't even turn on the first time. It is located up a significant flight of stairs and then in my studio room which has a few more steps. I cannot move it by myself without risking damage. I think it would fit in my SUV with the seats down, but again, it would require another set of hands and my pregnant wife does not qualify. I asked that a service tech be sent to my home to make the unit operational. Juan told me he would talk to his manager about it and get back to me, probably tonight. We will see.

Hello Alan,

I'm sorry to read that your MP11 appears to be dead on arrival.

Fingers crossed the matter is resolved shortly, and you're able to enjoy your new DP.

Kind regards,
James
x

Yes, you having to go to the inconvenience of returning it for repair should not have even been part of the conversation. You should not have to deal with a defective unit. Kawai, or the dealer, should immediately send you a new unit and have the shipping company pick up the defective unit at your home. Even so, this means a longer wait for the MP11 you have purchased.

I would be demanding a new unit.

I recently received my MP11 back from an "authorised" technician that my dealer organised. Greasy fingerprints all over it, screws jammed into the wrong holes, and the initial problem remaining exactly the same was the result.

I had an encounter with with a salesman at Sam Ash in NYC that might be of interest here. The guy was insisting that you can't learn anything useful about digital pianos online (and being a bit of a jerk about it actually). As an illustration, he said something to the effect of: "Everybody talks about how great MP11s are, but three fourths of the ones that come into the store are DOA. But you never see anyone in the forums talking about that."

I'm not in the market for a stage piano, so he wasn't trying to talk me out of the MP11. (In fact we were mainly talking about the availability of the Roland DP90e -- the salesman was telling me that whatever impression Roland's web site might give, only the DP90Se was actually available). And I have absolutely no idea if what he said about the MP11 is true. (In particular, "three fourths" seems impossibly high to me. He may have been exaggerating, or I may be misremembering). But since the topic has come up, I just thought I'd throw this in.

Interesting. Still, there have been many posts about the MP11 from people who have bought them from various places and very few mention the DOA issue. If it were such a big issue as this guy claims, why isn't it mentioned more from those who buy MP11s?

I would be interested to know what happens to all these units that have minor problems, that get returned, or intercepted before they reach a customer. Are they repaired in the same country, then re-sold as new? Are they shipped back to Indonesia for recycling?


According to Wikipedia, as well as "Dead on arrival", i.e. doesn't power up, DOA can stand for "Defective on arrival". Maybe this is what he meant... and in that case the 3/4 number would not surprise me.

If you were having the conversation with Sweetwater, they would be shipping you a replacement unit, the FedEx truck would be picking up the original unit (you might be on your own regarding the stairs down to the street entrance), and if a unit was anything other than brand factory new it would be stated as such on their website, and offered at a discount. But, Australia is a l-o-o-o-n-g way from Indiana!

If you had a problem with the first unit, they might open the replacement and check it out thoroughly before shipping it to you. You would be told, if this were the case.

If 3/4 of the shipped units were bad, I doubt they would be carrying the brand. In any case, customers can post reviews of the gear on their site.

Don't know if Ash can say as much. Sounds like their guy was like most people trying to look like a big shot: liars.

We do get posts here when people run into trouble with defective gear, including Kawai's. It can happen. The retailer is expected to be the first one you turn to with service issues, but if it doesn't get resolved there, Kawai has your back. They're well-known in the trade for their customer service.

I would be asking for a brand new replacement unit, personally.

Juan called me back several days ago and said his manager made an exception (or something to that effect) and they are going to have the tech come to repair the unit at my home. I asked him to e-mail the information of the tech and confirmed the tech would call me. I didn't receive an e-mail or a call. Not a big deal since I was out of town for a few days anyways, but the follow-up was obviously lacking on Kawai's part. I found Juan's e-mail through a quick Google search. He called me later that day and made an excuse about the e-mail not being right (which he confirmed several times previously, so that's a bit hard to believe), but nevertheless, told me the tech was going to call me and Juan e-mailed me the info. The tech did call last night from Epperson Organ which is 20 minutes away from me. He told me he wasn't sure when he could come out and would call me tomorrow (today). He called this morning and asked that he could come Friday. I advised that was fine and gave him a window. He told me he would call to confirm on Friday.

I would "demand" a new unit if I didn't think it was going to take many more weeks and still involve me boxing and carrying it down stairs again. I will be supervising the repair and will obviously only accept a flawless unit functionally and cosmetically.

Hello Alan, thank you for the update.

I'm glad to read that you're being looked after. Fingers crossed the tech will find the problem and you'll be able to play your piano by the weekend.

Kind regards,
James
x

Hello BubbaMc,



If you are not satisfied with the service you have received, my recommendation would be to raise this matter with the dealer, and if necessary bring it to the attention of the local distributor (Kawai Australia).

Kind regards,
James
x

So, the update is that the tech came Friday 4/17 at the request of Kawai. With my help, he took it apart and removed one of the boards. Apparently, Juan told him that there is a transistor on a board on the back of the unit that is very close to the vertical rear face of the keyboard and that the only report of problems with the MP11 arise from damage to that transistor. The tech removed the board and you could see that the transistor, in fact, must have been impacted down with force sufficient to push the pins through the board and break the traces. The continuity, however, seemed OK. The tech repaired and soldered the board on site and checked continuity but the unit would not power on. Juan told him he would send a whole new board as well as a whole new board where the processor is that apparently has something to do with controlling power as it pertains to the momentary switch.

It seems ludicrous to me that Kawai would engineer things to be that tight inside the back of the unit that a physical impact to the fairly-rigid metal of the back of the unit (while packaged, no less) would be sufficient to impart enough force to damage delicate electronics. It's not like we're talking about adding an extra millimeter of clearance to something like an iPhone here. The depth is already 453 mm for crying out loud. Would another mm or two really made a negative difference?

Moving on, I was out of town on business this week and back on Thursdsay afternoon. The tech returned Friday morning with a box from Kawai in hand. He swapped both boards, plugged it in, and NOTHING.

At this point, I've had the piano in my house for 3 weeks not functioning and it has been almost 16 weeks since I ordered it. I've wasted 4 hours combined standing around helping the tech and watching him.

I told the tech to tell Juan on the phone that I wanted a new unit shipped to me. Of course, I'm inferring what Juan is saying from hearing what the tech is saying. At first, I'm relieved to hear that Kawai is not going to "fight" sending me a whole new unit but when I ask if they would ship it out today (it was early Friday morning PST), the tech says "oh you need to receive this one back before you can ship a new one?" Needless to say, I was incredulous. The tech told Juan to call me as he didn't want to be in the middle of it (understandably). John Epperson, the tech, was very nice, helpful and apologetic. Obviously, this isn't his fault but he felt bad nonetheless.

Juan did call me a few minutes later and initially told me the same thing about needing the unit back before shipping the replacement. I told him that if he wanted my credit card info as security, I didn't care, I just wanted my piano. What the heck am I going to do with this non-functioning unit? Try to scrap it for parts? Give me a break.

Thankfully, he did confirm that they had an MP11 in the warehouse they could ship me (I feared I would have to wait for another shipment). I was transferred to a credit card processor who confirmed she was going to actually charge my card (rather than place a hold or something). Whatever, it's not that I need the available credit, but to me, it's the principle of this whole thing. Regardless, she charged the card and confirmed someone would send me an e-mail with a return label.

I did get the return label in an e-mail later in the day. I did not get a shipment notification. I replied to that e-mail asking for a tracking number and was told my order was "processing" and that it should probably go out Monday...I refrained from responding via e-mail with my thoughts.

Welcome to the World of Kawai Support. It is a world of pain. I made a similar experience in Europe, which some less drastic defects on my MP7.

It is outrageous, especially for a high-priced instrument as the MP11 and the tech person present at your home twice. The only acceptable action after the second failed repair attempt, would have been to expedite courier a new MP11 to your house door, with a return pickup voucher! This way it would have been cheaper for Kawai, better for The Customer, and better for Kawai's reputation in the market.
The way Kawai support decided to handled it, you risk to pay twice, if something goes wrong with the return shipping of the totally defective return-unit.

I am waiting for the first account of a MP11 or MP7 failing live on stage, just because the guitar player bumps his guitar into the back of the stage piano and destroys this flimsy electronic part at the back. I am all positive about it.