Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Kawai GM10 bass register lame comparing to W157

starting at 2:17 weber 157 sounds way better then kawai GM10 at 2:28. Now I know why should not buy 5 foot grand.

I agree that the Weber sounded nice, but it needed fine tuning; some unison’s were twangy. The Kawai was really twangy on every note he played and it was not a fair comparison… The bass on the Kawai did sound tubby, but it may have been an older piano with older bass strings… surely it was not a new one.

As far as the duplex scale, it is a nice feature, but some high-end grands do not have the duplex scale.

The guy playing it did a nice job… Was that you?

I’ll bet your new 6’2” Weber sounds a lot better than W157.

Rick

They use that Kawai frequently as a "bad example." It is badly out of tune. I don't like the sound of a GM-10, but for a fair comparison it should at least be in tune. Note, too, that he plays the Weber with the damper pedal engaged, and the Kawai without thus making the Weber sound more "lively." I'm not saying the Weber isn't a good piano. It sounds pretty decent. I only mean to point out the sleaziness of the "comparison."

The mid-upper ground of Consumer Grade Pianos is undoubtedly the most contentious one in the industry today.

This is where non-Japanese companies are making the biggest strides today and will be expected in future.

As is already reflected in Piano Buyer's current ratings:

http://www.pianobuyer.com/spring12/45.html

Stay tuned for more to come, lots more....

Norbert

yes, but in this example tuning didn't count, both were out of tune anyway. You may not notice on computer's speakers well this but on my woofer I could hear big difference in bass sound.

So they are dealing with overtones differently?
Why Kawai dump it?




no, I am not bald yet

The recording means nothing the pianos are in different places and the mic is being moved -- please disregard this

I believe the sort of comparisons done in this video are common by piano dealers around the country. I'm sure if someone was interested in buying that Kawai that they are comparing unfavorably in this video they would extol the virtues of the Kawai piano. Nothing wrong with it - simple salesmanship. Videos like this are fun to watch but the only way to know what piano you prefer is to play it. The Kawai bass sounds inferior in this video but the piano might be kept in a lesser condition by the dealer to make the Weber line sound superior. Larry Fine indicates in his PIANO BOOK that this isn't an uncommon practice. I BOUGHT a "promotional grade" grand years ago and have loved it ever since.

That wouldn't make sense since he sells both pianos and the videos he made watch all kinda people - someone who wants to buy a kawai as well as someone who wants something less expensive. Doing so the seller would scare off potential kawai buyers
(in this case), don't you think?

Dealers sell off of other pianos in the store all the time. To my ears the bass of the GM10 is a bit tubby. I've heard of dealers that carefully tune Steinways to sound in tune, but have no sustain. In this case my question is whether the dealer is an authorized dealer of new Kawai pianos. That particular GM10 could be gray market or just used. However, even if the dealer is an authorized Kawai dealer he may make more on the Weber than a GM10. I've seen dealers besmirch the lowly GM10 trying to get someone to think a GE30 or better yet a RX2 is in their future. The fact is no 5'2" Piano is premium grade.

Any fool can see that dissing a piano brand like that is questionable, even sleazy sales practice.
The Kawai piano in this case was in poor shape and the comparison was unfair.

I believe that such practice is unethical and demeans those involved more than the Kawai piano.

Robert.

Ah, the old "reluctantly selling a trade-in" technique... I've seen this before at a few dealers where the perceived competitor was on display and almost intentionally set up to look and sound bad. The most egregious example of this was a Roland digital piano dealer who had a couple of old Yamahas acoustic pianos nailed to the floor...

That Kawai was so hideously out of tune it was almost funny. Granted, the GM-10 isn't my favorite small grand, but this comparison wasn't remotely fair. The perceived benefit of the duplex scale "precision and clarity" and it's demonstration in the sales pitch made me chuckle a little-- particularly after plucking the duplex section up through the piano.

The Piano Forum has had dealers and sales-reps promoting a particular brand heavily for a period of time. I remember the times of Petrof, Pramberger, Nordiska, and more. Now is the Weber turn.

In friendly terms I suggest this is not an efficient way for branding a product. Don't waste your valuable time comparing to Yamaha and Kawai and continue bringing those two names on people's face.
There are more productive and effective ways of helping the sales force. Such as developing sales-skills in terms of the interrelation with the customer, educate them with more compelling facts about piano technology, help them develop marketing skills and networking.

The demonstration in the video is as common as it gets and once a potential buyer realized that everybody has the same demonstration there is nothing effective about it. In fact this video is effective at informing consumers about two affordable pianos built by Kawai and Yamaha.

posted at another thread by piano-shark:


Piano-shark...actually I should call you piano-goldfish because you sound like a rookie salesman trying to promote his brand. IF you really bought a weber piano enjoy it and give it a rest. If you are not a salesman... you sound like somebody who is having buyer's remorse looking for people to help you reinforce your decision.(probably you should've bought a Yamaha or Kawai)

PW members are always happy to see that somebody bought a piano (congratulations). But honestly there is nothing exciting about a $7,995 Young Chang stencil brand especially if you are not making positive contributions. Most of the folks here are Pros or serious piano aficionados and these types of posts come across as "cheesy". If you are salesman you are not going to make any money selling entry-level baby-grands therefore don't worry much about the Gm10 or the Gb1, if you are not a salesman enjoy your piano

Best regards,

Correcion: Bösendorfer 5'1" is .

Does the GM10 have an equally thick and durable lid prop?

Eric, that's a good one. I have never before heard anyone try to sell a piano based on the durability of its lid prop. I didn't even notice that in the video, but you zeroed right in on the strangeness.

OP, I truly hope you enjoy your Weber. There's nothing wrong with it. It actually sounds pretty nice, and I have no doubt it sounds better than a GM-10 even if the Kawai was properly in tune. I understand folks who cannot afford or cannot bring themselves to buy a more expensive piano. I am one of them. Your new instrument should serve you well for many years.

Interestingly, they seem to be somewhat confused about what they think about the GM10.

http://pianocenter.com/used-detail.asp?CATID=13608

Quote:

Kawai's Promotional series LACKS the following:
Smaller, less dense hammers
Economical strings
Thin cast Iron Plate
Narrow tail design, less soundboard area
Small one inch caster with narrow tapered leg
Thinner Inner and outer rim
etc.

How strange.

Well, it's clear they're not an authorized Kawai dealer. It's not clear what brands they are authorized to sell new, but it looks like it's just Weber and Hailun. One page says they were a Kawai dealer for 25 years, but it's pretty obvious that's in the past. The impressive list of brands on the left is marketing BS, because they're all used pianos and many of those links have no current inventory. The link for Boston says,

"Boston is a piano that is mass-produced in Hamamatsu, Japan by Kawai for Steinway. The RX Series Kawai is Kawai’s elite piano and it’s performance level equals Boston’s. BHA was a Kawai dealer for 25 years and the list below is what BHA has is stock in the RX Series."

The list below has zero RX series Kawai pianos, but there is that GM10! LOL!

You can't make this stuff up.

They present themselves as morons. When the Hailun & Weber, etc. are no longer the flavour of the month, they'll no doubt rebut their previous statements regarding such brands.

They really are 'premium grade' idiots.