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Evaluating a used Disklavier

Evaluating a used Disklavier

2008-12-20 by jyl087

Hi,

I'm considering the purchase of a pre-owned Disklavier. I've read Larry
Fine's excellent Piano Book, in particular the chapter on buying a used
piano. My hope is to acquire a U1 based model, preferably less that 12
years old. Are there any particular points I should pay attention to
when evaluating these instruments?

While reading Fine's book, it occured to me that there ought to exist
some kind of "evaluation disk" available which can put the instrument
through its paces! E.g., play all the notes from softest to loudest,
play octaves, check pedal functions, etc. Does such a MIDI file exist?
If not, I'm thinking that I need to put one together myself!

Cheers,
Jim

Re: [disklavier] Evaluating a used Disklavier

2008-12-20 by Spencer_Lists

Greetings jyl087,

I wrote a "Virtual Keyboard" program for the purpose of testing player
pianos. I looked on the web for a long time trying to find something
that had the features I needed and never found anything even close so
I wrote my own. You can play individual notes at any loudness, play
them repeatedly at different repetition rates etc. If you can hook up
a MIDI interface to a piano you can check it out pretty thoroughly. It
is actually much faster and easier to use than a MIDI file. The
program is available from the following page of my web site:
http://www.spencerserolls.com/Files4Download.html Currently the
program does not have any pedal test functions but I can add them if
anyone has an idea of what might be useful.

Friday, December 19, 2008, 8:53:59 PM, you wrote:
> Hi,

> I'm considering the purchase of a pre-owned Disklavier. I've read Larry
> Fine's excellent Piano Book, in particular the chapter on buying a used
> piano. My hope is to acquire a U1 based model, preferably less that 12
> years old. Are there any particular points I should pay attention to
> when evaluating these instruments?

> While reading Fine's book, it occured to me that there ought to exist
> some kind of "evaluation disk" available which can put the instrument
> through its paces! E.g., play all the notes from softest to loudest,
> play octaves, check pedal functions, etc. Does such a MIDI file exist?
> If not, I'm thinking that I need to put one together myself!

> Cheers,
> Jim

>  

-- 
Best regards,
Spencer_Lists Chase        mailto:lists@spencerserolls.com
67550 Bell Springs Rd.
Garberville,  CA 95542    Postal service only.
Laytonville, CA 95454    UPS only.
Lists@spencerserolls(dot)com
http://www(dot)spencerserolls.com 
replace (dot) with a .
(707) 984-8356

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