Just a quick email to let everyone know that I am in complete agreement
with everything (excepting one point) D.L. Bullock wrote in 020329
MMDigest concerning the stringing of pianos.  Having worked for a Kawai
dealer (and owning the very best Kawai GS-40 grand you ever encountered)
I truly believe the newer Kawai pianos aren't tuned and prepped as well
as the earlier Kawai instruments.  I'm also quite alarmed at the fact
that new Kawai pianos have more plastic in them than a daycare's center
full of Fischer-Price toys.

Extremely sharp tuning causes major stress to the bridge pins, flattens
the crown, and loosens the windings of the copper coils in the bass
section.  I have always patiently tuned my newly installed strings to
the correct pitch until they will stay there no matter how many times
it takes.  I believe that this is why I've never shot off a new bass
wire and had to return one to either Schaff or Mapes.  Once more, D.L.
Bullock's comments about stringing and prepping a new piano/restrung
piano are gospel to me and those procedures I incorporate into my own
work.

Eric J. Shoemaker
Tacoma, WA

PS: Of all the pianos I ever uncrated and prepped, the Schulze-Pollman
undoubtedly ranks #1 in my experience -- they go out of the crate and
on to the sales floor.  Does anyone know what they do at that factory
prior to shipment?  Other companies and rebuilders ought to ask that
question.