KAWAI GRAND PIANOS — ACTION, BEAUTY AND DESIGN

Superb tone is the first hallmark of every Kawai grand piano, with countless hours of research and development paying dividends in perfecting the exceptional sound. Yet, playing the piano is as much an experience of touch as it is of tone, so it is fortunate that consistent, ultra-responsive touch also remains a Kawai tradition.

The Millennium III Action

The revolutionary Millennium III Upright Action represents the third evolution of piano touch. Combining modern material science with innovative new design concepts, Kawai has developed an action with a feel and consistency that is unmatched. We cordially invite you to experience the pre-eminent piano action of the third millennium.

Kawai made history in the early 1970s with the introduction of piano actions featuring ABS Styran — a strong, stable material that solved many of the problems associated with wood (most notably, shrinking and swelling) in the fine workings of an action. ABS Styran brought a higher level of piano stability that earned high praise from pianists worldwide.

Over the next two decades, the designs were steadily refined and improved until the unveiling of the Kawai Ultra-Responsive ABS Action in the mid-1990s. This new action, with its intelligent use of ABS Styran and other composite materials, continues to out-perform conventional "all wooden" actions in reliability, durability and long-term consistency of touch.

The Millennium III Action represents the next evolving step in upright piano technology. It was created to enhance the three performance elements that professional pianists desire most — speed, control and power. Innovative new materials and designs made possible dramatic advances that offer an exceptionally satisfying experience for the player.

For the Millennium III Action, Kawai scientists developed a new material called ABS-Carbon, created by the infusion of carbon fibers into ABS material. ABS-Carbon is incredibly strong and lightweight — properties that allowed Kawai to make the action parts lighter without sacrificing strength. The lighter design makes the Millennium III Action exceptionally fast and effortless. The repetition and and ease-of-playing is superb.

The Millennium III Action features several core components that are redesigned with lighter mass and structural enhancements to optimize speed, repetition and control. Every exacting detail of the action was analyzed and adapted to create an intimate interface between the artist and the music. While the key weight is comparable to most other high-end piano actions, the incredible ease of expression, especially for pianissimo playing, is extraordinary.

At the start of development, Kawai engineers focused on the need for exceptional repetition — a feature highly-prized by professional pianists. To improve repetition, the action parts needed to be made lighter in weight. But there would be a side effect. Reducing weight alone could result in parts that were not as strong. Therefore, the engineers reasoned that the parts must be made stronger before they could be made lighter. The infusion of carbon fiber into ABS increased the strength of the material by 90%. This enabled ABS-Carbon parts to be stronger, even though they were made lighter in weight. With lighter ABS-Carbon parts, the Millennium III Upright Action was made faster — approximately 16% faster than a conventional wooden action. Reduced weight enables it to respond with incredible quickness and ease. The "static weight" (the weight required to depress a key initially) is in line with the standard touch weight for most top-quality upright pianos. But the "dynamic weight" (which measures the effort required to move a key that is already in motion) is enhanced dramatically. Professional pianists have described the overall movement as "swift, effortless and wonderfully responsive." Additional power was a natural byproduct of adding carbon fiber to ABS material. Carbon fiber makes ABS-Carbon not only stronger, but also more rigid. Because rigid parts tend to transfer energy more efficiently than pans that "flex," ABS-Carbon sends more energy to the hammer with every keystroke. In short, the player is able to produce more power with less effort.

Innovative Design

The soundboard is the very heart of the piano's tone. It's purpose is to transfer the vibrations of the piano's strings into a beautiful, resonant tone. Kawai uses only straight-grained, quarter-sawn solid spruce for all grand piano soundboards. Each one is tested with state-of-the-art equipment to measure the speed at which sound energy travels through it. Only those soundboards that exceed our demanding resonance standards are selected for use in Kawai grand pianos.

Bridges transfer the vibrations of the strings to the soundboard. Kawai grand piano bass bridges are made of the highest quality hard maple or beech. Treble bridges are vertically laminated with 13 layers of maple and mahogany for maximum strength and optimal transfer of sound. The RX6 and RX7 feature a single, continuous bridge that helps to smooth the transition between bass and treble registers.

Mahogany hammer mouldings are a feature of all Kawai grand pianos. Mahogany is a superior choice for hammer mouldings because of its high ratio of strength to weight. Mahogany hammers are light weight and extremely responsive.

Kawai's exclusive NEOTEX keytop material made of cellulose fibre offers the smooth, understated texture of natural ivory and ebony ... and a semi-porous silica-filled surface to absorb the hand;s natural oils and perspiration. Since NEOTEX is used for both the sharps and naturals, the feel of the keys is consistent across the entire keyboard. NEOTEX resists cracking and fading over years of use — and is static-resistant to help prevent the build-up of unwanted dust. The result is a beautiful, long lasting key surface with exceptional playability.

The music rack must support a variety of music books and music writing implements. Kawai's hard finish protects the music rack from being scratched or marred ... preserving the piano's beauty.

The Kawai fallboard is designed with a dual-damping mechanism so sensitive that it was dubbed "soft-fall". The ultra-slow closing system protects hands, fingers and the piano's finish from the harm that a jarring close might cause.

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