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pv-88, I'm pretty sure the piano comes with cleaning solution and cloth. My family member purchased the H1 and it came with it. Nice touch

Yes, mine came with a small pump spray of liquid and a yellow microfibre cloth. Works perfectly.

That said, I think it's possible to over think this stuff. Any liquid glass cleaner would be fine I'm sure.

Thanks, everyone, as it is good to know the cloth and cleaning solution has been provided.

Now that the V-Piano has been moved out of the way to its new location everything is set for the V100's arrival although I suspect it will be a long wait as I have yet to receive the confirmation from Viscount that the piano has been picked up by the carrier and is starting the trip. Will be notified when the piano is actually shipped and then an estimate is given for the time it takes to reach my local shop which is usually several weeks.

I know from past experience that the long distance haul can be rather slow as it took around 6 weeks for the Clavinova CLP-990M to get delivered and it happened to ship from the same state the V100 will be shipping from -- i.e., New York. Unless I am told otherwise the piano does not ship directly to my piano shop as it will go to another location at least one state away before reaching the final destination so there is an additional stop and transfer along the way.

Special delivery/handling required:

Just did speak with the local shop about delivery on my end and it looks like the price is going to run about $400 (a little higher than the standard $250 piano move) since the V100 will have to be taken out of its crating materials and several plywood boards will have to be laid down in front of the dolly to roll the piano about 75 feet across the back yard instead of bodily carrying it by hand to the house like they did with the Clavinova CLP-585. Do not want to see the V100 getting set down into the grass and dirt (and/or mud if it is wet) since I noted the Clavinova had to be set down several times in the yard during the carry while the men rested. Fortunately for the men it was a dry day and they managed to get the piano in okay without any visible damages although I never did check the underside of the pedal board and assumed nothing else was sticking to it (like loose grass or dirt) since it had been set down in the yard.

A little more work is required with repeatedly picking up and setting down the plywood boards in front of the dolly (which becomes a level path of sorts) so the piano can be rolled up to the door with less effort. Do things right, when moving a piano!

Steve,

Do you (or, anyone else) know if Fatar has an escapement simulation "kit" that can be added to the action?

You mentioned that your H1 does not have the escapement simulation and I am assuming the V100 does not either, although will confirm this detail, later.

TP/40WOOD action:

http://fatar.com/Pages/TP_40WOOD.htm

[Please note "escapement" has been misspelled twice]

Escapement is not a required feature when playing.

Extra note:

Can anyone confirm if TP/40WOOD has solid wooden keys or are they just shims of wood glued to the sides of the plastic keys?

Richard, I've moved pianos and I've moved digital pianos. They are definitely not one and the same, and hopefully your movers to the home also are experienced.
It sounds like the V-100 should be put on a proper piano skid(carefully strapped to it with blankets), then that all could set on a dolly to roll. It likely should NOT just set on the dolly itself in middle/base of V100. Even the skid, should actually have a board running the length of it the same width as skid so that V100 bottom is totally supported the whole length. Piano skids generally have two raised padded portions on the bottom(which also allow the straps to be fed underneath) which are great for acoustic pianos...but I can't say that the V100 would have a flat bottom/support as a typical upright acoustic piano has the whole length.
Anyway, just some things to consider..you don't want Three Stooges Moving showing up
It might be wise to make contact and ensure there is communication from New York to the final movers as to just what type of piano they will be dealing with, including any possible moving recommendations/guidelines.
I myself have never moved a V100, but am just going from past experiences...

The TP40 wood action is not just 'shims of wood attached to plastic sides', but the core is wood.
This explains why the action weight is considerably heavier when comparing the H1 model to the H2 model.
I found the H1/V100 action to feel just about right...not too heavy, not too light, IMO.

Saw a H2 and V100 in the flesh briefly yesterday at Kavern in Milton Keynes.

They had a white V100 (why would anyone stock the white? Doesn't everyone go through a brief period when they think the "Imagine" video is cool but then they learn white pianos are actually awful and no one wants one?) next to some new casio model that has a wooden action with hammers.

I think it must have been the GP-500BP, which in glossy black and seeing hammers move when you press a key made it look expensive.
Not like a casio.

Next to that the white V100 didn't look so impressive. Although, in store, the price tag was £2999 rather than the £3999 it is on their webpage. Do Viscount/physis just make the price up as they go along?

I didn't get to discover whether that was just this white version in stock, or if it applied to them all. The salesman did mention the £1000 difference though.

The salesman annoyed me too much for that. I went in started walking around their digital pianos and he asks "Can I help you?" and I responded with what I thought was the internationally recognised polite way of saying "Go away and leave me alone to look at your stuff" of "Just browsing, thanks" - but apparently he skipped that day in salesman class.

So I'm stood in front of a H2 on the fancy speaker stand - which was about £2999 IIRC - and I tried the action and thought it didn't really feel that bad. It's plastic but it didn't feel cheap. I've tried some cheap digital pianos and myriad 76-key semi-weighted and non-weighted midi controllers that have made me go "Eugggh" at first press. This seemed on par with my RP800 TBH, a decent action.

Trouble is though it doesn't really dent the price enough to make it worthwhile anyway. The H1, H2 and H3 aren't at price points. It's the most odd attempt at marketing since that other company that get upset if you mention them which rhymes with Poland suggested they have a 'roland piano' . It just seems they are a little bit cheaper if you go for less keys or non wooden, but not by enough to make it worth considering imo.

It's like as if Ferrari sold a car for £500000 and then did one with plastic seats that was £499750. Unless you have a wood allergy you may as well get the slightly more expensive one.

But then I walked around the other side to see the other digital pianos and these were cheap casios. He starts his sales pitch on the cheapest one - "Switch it on and play it if you like" "Err, ok" I responded and carried on looking. Then he comes from behind the till, switches it on and starts to play. It's like a guy has walked into his store to look at the £2000-4000 pianos on his website and he's doing the hard sell on a £499 one. At that point I started to walk out the store when I saw the v100. I tried the action on that and thought it felt fine.

Although, as I say, next to a casio with a real piano action, with £1000 off the ticket, it still didn't say "buy me!" - and then the salesman was back asking me if I had a digital piano. This is why shopping online won isn't it? Because you can buy it and send it back if you don't like it and you don't have overly keen salesmen that can't take a hint.

Anyway, I think the H1 would be great. If it was £1xxx or something I probably wouldn't think twice, I'd have walked out the store with one or ordered one online. If they had something like 73-key £799, 88-plastic £999 and 88-wood £1499, with other, significant differences to justify the pricing, then I think they'd sell a load of them.

But, I imagine selling this to my SO who sees most digital pianos or keyboards priced from £4xx to £2xxx as being the same "why do you need this one?" and you have to start blathering about physical modelling and so on and she'd say "Well they all sound like pianos to me" You know, selling her why the bike that I want costs about the price of a small family car and is better than the £299 halfords one "that's a bike isn't it? What's wrong with it? Your brother-in-law has one" is easier "It's made of carbon, feel the weight. Look, the gears are electronic. The brakes are hydraulic disks" and, most importantly, the bike I want is priced about the same as all the other bikes of similar spec from the other brands (except BMC for no discernable reason - perhaps they have physical modelling? )

If you're going to be more expensive than everyone else you have to be significantly better, especially if they are the established brands. You know, at best they have an alfa-romeo here, something that the Top gear presenters will say is great, but they'll roll their eyes when
they think about reliability. They aren't selling Ferraris compared with, say, Yamahas Lexus or 350z. It aint "Well, it's a Ferrari!" and it's not German either otherwise you wouldn't be fretting about it breaking.

So yeah, fatar is not nearly as bad as I imagined even the supposed cheaper, plastic version. The wooden keys made it feel pretty good to my fingers at a brief test. But not an SO-friendly bargaining price. The guy in the shop tried to tell me it wasn't expensive, it was quality, but I would have a harder job than he did selling it when I got home.

Regarding your last comment about Fatar actions. I hate it to be the guy "who knows a good pianist who likes some rubbish action" but yes, I know a really good classical pianist who recently expressed how much he loved the wooden Fatar action comparing it to Yamaha, Kawai and Roland actions and that shocked me. I haven't tested that particular wooden action but I have the stereotypical view that Fatar actions are not worth it. Might need to test that one.

I'm not sure why Fatar gets a bad rap.
Nord uses exclusively Fatar, and you never hear anyone complain about 'their' actions. I know they apparently 'tweak' them to make them as to their specs? They are now using that TP/40 ivory, 3 sensor wood on their latest "Stage" model too.
The H1(Viscount) apparently had Fatar specifically cater to them on this project too when in R & D.
Many manufacturers use Fatar: Studiologic(of course), Dexibell and countless others...
Re 'breaking': We have had our K4ex 1.5 yrs...everything is as new. Plus if anything happened we are cover through where we purchased(Cosmo Music/Toronto).

Got. to. be. kidding....

In my thread I don't mince my words about the Nord Piano II action - it's absolutely dismal. The single worst action I've ever played on an expensive product. Hated it is a massive understatement. If they've tweaked it, they've tweaked it wrong. I'm probably at the harsher end of the scale, but I've seen a lot of negative comments about Nord actions on this, and other forums. From my observations I'd put the breakdown like this:

20% think it's a very crappy action.
40% - think it's a pretty crappy action
20% of people think it's an ok action.
10% think it's an average action with good connection to the sound engine.
10% think it's a good action.
0% think it's a very good action.

Well, Ando already said what I was going to repeat

Mmm. Well, Nord is using TP40 not TP40 wood. TP40 wood is basically TP400 with wooden elements. It is better than the Nord action.

I would say, according to ando's rough guide above, that I basically agree with him. I would say the Nord Piano (original version and NP2) action is okay or 'average with a good connection to sound engine'. For me, good enough. Not good but good 'enough' to enjoy the sounds. It didn't get in the way, I'd put it that way.

Physis H1 / V100 is better than that. Not different league but better. And the weighting is spot on for my taste.

The Fatar actions typically have lots of fans but not really around here, which is a very piano orientated crowd. Personally I would take pretty much any Roland, Yamaha or Kawai action from their midrange and upwards over the very best Fatar can do. But their best is in the right ballpark, just. And I do think that Fatar actions such as TP40 and upwards have become very reliable and durable.

Anyway, key feel is such a personal thing.

Yes Steve, I don't want to comment on the Physis/TP40 wood because I've never tried one. My comments were only to dispute the idea that Nord actions attract no complaints.

Yes, I realised that - and I am pretty much agreeing with you. Maybe my tolerance of Fatar actions is a bit greater than yours though. Given the diverse range of manufacturers that use them and the fact that they (Fatar) are not apparently able to make something that is quite in the same bracket as the better Yamaha, Kawai and Roland actions it surprises me that someone else doesn't enter the market. These very promising instruments from Physis, Kurzweil, Dexibell and of course Nord would all benefit from a better keyboard.

@toonr,

Shipping questions:

My only concern at this point is receiving the V100 in decent condition and I am not going to get any details from Viscount other than "it was picked up" on a certain day and an estimated time frame -- and, I have been told it will be picked up via one (of two) long distance haulers:

1) Keyboard Carriage
2) Walter Transport

All that I know so far from past experience (as mentioned in the other post above) is that the haul will take 4 to 6 weeks on average unless I am given a different estimate from Viscount and I am now waiting on the confirmation for pickup.

Another problem is that it may not be possible to get any kind of tracking info for where the piano is, or, is going to, as they are not like UPS or FedEx.

Question:

Do you know anything about Keyboard Carriage, or, Walter Transport?

I have already posted a new thread below with questions for anyone that has had previous experience with either of these two moving companies:

Keyboard Carriage & Walter Transport -- Hauling questions

Any info is appreciated.

I don't think you should invest yourself too much in worries you can't control, Richard. The good news is that your new Physis will be wrapped in its original box and styrofoam packing. This should be much more protective than your Yamaha which clearly had inadequate protection around the pedal assembly. The package should be insured for extra peace of mind, but I think it will arrive to you undamaged.

I don't know how it works in the US, but pretty much all package delivery services here in Australia offer a tracking service which is highly detailed. They can tell you where it is on any leg of its journey. I would have thought the same is possible in the US. If you have a tracking number, you should be able to visit their website and use their tracker. Whatever detail you get is probably all they have. Although, you might get more if you ring them up with the tracking number. They don't generally respond well to tracking updates unless it's a late delivery. If somebody's just getting anxious and calling them up for reassurance, they won't care much.

ando,

Sorry, but if I remember correctly with my previous shipment of the CLP-990M, there was no info whatsoever to be given as for tracking the shipment as it is very difficult to reach anyone at Keyboard Carriage that knows any details except for a generic phone number. Don't recall anyone I reached being very helpful as to knowing where the piano was. Finally found out the piano had arrived in a location one state away and it took another week or so from there.

Probably won't hear anything from anyone until it arrives at the local shop and is ready for delivery.

ando, sorry I had no idea people were reacting to Nord actions so negatively.
I guess it comes down to personal tastes/needs, and what each owner is happy with, or not.

Richard, I am somewhat familiar with Keyboard Carriage and Walters. I guess I've dealt with KC indirectly.
I don't know enough to say good or bad things, other than they have been at it a long time and have a longstanding reputation with many dealers/warehouses etc.
As was stated above, if the V100 comes in the original packaging, I too agree that is the best/most protected.

toonr,

As for now the piano hasn't even been picked up yet and until I receive notification from Viscount I will not know if the piano is going via Keyboard Carriage, or, Walter Transport.

Sending a message to Viscount, to see.