Disklavier

----- Original Message -----

From: Carol Beigel

To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:16 PM

Subject: Re: [disklavier] Re: gray market pianos

I realize this gray market issue comes up regularly, and if I was not
concerned about the issue and how is so sadly affects the cusotmers who buy
these pianos, I would not bother to reply. I have 30 years experience
servicing pianos and have never seen a gray market piano equal in
performance or tone, the same piano made for the North American market.
Let's take the geography out of the argument and stick to the indoor climate
model. In North America, people's homes can range from about 6% to 90%
relative humidity during the year. If you were to leave a pile of wood
outddoors for 4 years, the moisture content of the wood would be around 12%.
Should you build a piano from this pile of wood and place it in a home where
the relative humidity stayed below 10% for many weeks, the piano would have
problems from shrinking. However, if you first kiln dried that wood down to
5% moisture content and built your piano, it would not warp in low humidity.

The damage done to a gray market piano is done when there is too much
dryness. Wood swells up in high humidity as you know because the pitch of
your piano is sharp during the summer. When you turn on your furnace, the
pitch drips dramatically because the soundboard has shrunk, or flattened
out. If you take your nice dried out 5% moisture soundboard, and expose it
to 80% RH, it will expand. Since it has nowhere to go, it grows (warps) with
a huge crown in the middle. The cell structure of the wood compresses
usually near the glue lines and you can see the pressure ridges. Left
without climate control, those pressure ridges become the cracks in the
soundboard you see when the piano dries out.

Think of a piece of wood like you would holding a handfull of straws.
Moisture can only leave through the ends of the straws, and not the sides.
Wood takes on moisture very quickly, but it takes about 6 weeks for it to
leave. Since it can only leave through the end grain of the keys, action
parts, soundboards, etc. there is flexing or warping of the wood. Round
holes become oval shaped, so any metal pins will bind. Cloth bushings in
the keys and action parts swell. This causes sticking keys and notes that
return slowly. Think of a popsicle stick thrown in your front lawn. It was
straight when you finished your popsicle, but a week later laying around in
the sun, it can be quite warped and cracked.

Over time, this changing of moisture content is very hard on pianos. That
is why there are piano climate control systems that are helpful when people
move from Florida to Phoenix. If you bought your piano in the U.S. you will
find under how to care for your piano, that the relative humidity should be
kept as constant as possible and probably around 42 to 50%.

Kiln drying wood is very expensive as it requires a lot of energy and time.
Why put a piano through this expensive process when your market is a place
where the inside of buildings will remain fairly constant? If no one in
your market needs to heat up a furnace during cold, snowy weather, why
bother to add twice the cost of manufacturing? That is why different
factories around the world produce pianos for different markets - because
they are located in different indoor climate zones.

People in Europe generally do not heat their homes as dry as North Americans
do because the temperatures outdoors were milder in winter. I doubt some
people who live in some parts of Indonesia or Asia have ever seen snow. So
why should they pay for a piano made from kiln dried wood?

On the other hand, people who live in most of North America will be sadly
dissappointed with a piano that was not made from kiln dried wood. They
will have intermittent sticking keys at best. And it they purchased a
Disklavier with electronic parts that are not UL approved, they will have
trouble finding a supplier willing to risk a product safety lawsuit. The
world of manufacturing wood products has changed significantly in the past
30 years. Acid rain has been decimating spruce forests. The highest
bidders for premium lumber often turn it into paper. Environmental
protections dictate how many vapors are allowed to evaporate off the finish,
what glues do to worker's lungs, how wood sawdust from hardwoods can cause
cancer in woodworkers, or where a manufacturer may obtain the leather needed
to cushion piano actions. The dyes in the wool felt and cloth also need to
be considered as they can react with air pollution to cause premature string
corrosion.

You can argue forever about the fairness of servicing or the manufacturing
of pianos for different climate zones, but it comes down to reality
eventually. If you live in North America, purchasing a gray market piano is
not in your best interest.

Carol Beigel

----- Original Message -----
From: "rondisklavier" <setiawansr@aol.com>
To: <disklavier@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 6:14 PM
Subject: [disklavier] Re: gray market disklaviers (was owners manual)

> Jakarata, Indonesia. They make baby grand for American market.
>
>
> --- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, James Fry wrote:
>>
>> rondisklavier wrote:
>> > Carol,
>> >
>> > I used to have my practical training in Yamaha factory for my
>> > internship.
>> >
>> > I am not a piano sellers or have anything to do with piano
> industry,
>> > I just do not believe that Yamaha makes pianos differently for
>> > different market. It will cost them too much monies, in
> addition,
>> > Japanese manufacturing is very very automated so doing different
> way
>> > for different market is utterly impossible.
>> >
>>
>> Ron - out of interest, where was the factory?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> James
>>
>
>
>
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