I’m in the process of refurbishing a Kawai EP 308 that I recently acquired from Christopher North’s (AMBROSIA) former manager in LA. I’m in Denver.
This particular piano had been in storage for 35+ years and was in excellent condition.
Kawai made an unfortunate error when specifying the design of the hammer heads more specifically, the composite/cork-like material used as the core material underneath the synthetic leather caps. Over time this material degrades and literally crumbles. Therefore, I had to rebuild every hammerhead except keys 81-88 which used polyurethane rubber. Why Kawai chose not to use this P.R. material in lieu of the cork-like material is unknown to me. (NO REPLACEMENT HEAD FROM KAWAI OR ANYONE ELSE ARE AVAILABLE. AND NO, YAMMY’s CP 70/80 heads DONT WORK…for those inquiring minds 😉). Consequently, the sound may be on the “bright” side of voicing.
