Occasionally, advances in technology are made in great leaps, moments of intuition which challenge conventions and change our understanding of a particular field of endeavour. More often, changes are small and incremental, with subtle developments which all add up to more significant changes over a period of time. This is the case with the current K500 Upright Piano from Kawai, as supplied by Richard Lawson Pianos.
Kawai as a company has always worked on the principle of constantly improving and fine-tuning established designs to create market-leading products of unquestionable quality and provenance. The new Kawai K500 upright piano is the latest in a long line of models which remain close to the original designs in appearance, but feature many subtle changes which all add up to a superior ownership experience.
What does the K500 piano have to offer in terms of special features? Kawai’s renowned Millennium III action with Neotex key surfaces is common to all their latest models, and thousands of customers have benefitted from the use of ABS and carbon fibre components which are resistant to wear and to changes in humidity. Older cloth bushings used to swell with moisture and make action feel sluggish, however thanks to these modern materials recent Kawai pianos can deliver outstanding performance in less than optimal environments. The innovation in the case of the K500 upright piano is the specification of longer keys, which optimise the advantages already gleaned from the above system and make for a more neutral initial response, allowing for an even more expressive performance.
The tone of a finely crafted grand piano is one of the most majestic throughout the musical world, but the purchase of a full size grand from Kawai or any of the leading manufacturers is not a decision to be taken lightly. These are instruments of such prodigious size that even generously proportioned homes may struggle to accommodate them! As a result, many musicians and music aficionados are happy to settle for an upright piano model, which represents a compromise in terms of tone and presence, but is in many ways far more practical.
A key factor in the way a grand piano achieves its special tone is the ‘speaking length’ of the strings. This is the part of the string which resonates when a note is played. The longer the ‘speaking length’, the more room there is for harmonics to resonate along the length of the string, making for a fuller, richer tone. The speaking length of the strings on a K500 is among the longest on any Kawai upright piano, or any upright at all for that matter, resulting in a quality of sound which is simply not available from most other compact models. Along with other design tweaks such as double wheeled brass casters, this makes for an instrument which offers so much while maintaining a manageable size.
Other special features include a duplex scale, larger soundboard and ‘Softfall’ key lid. Contact Richard Lawson Pianos to view a Kawai upright piano for sale, or to find out more about these special features.
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