Kawai GX-7 Semi-Concert Grand Piano

Model Overview

Made in Japan, GX Series grand pianos aim to reproduce the delicate control of a full concert grand piano, delivering a level of refinement that few pianists have the opportunity to experience.

One only has to look at the myriad of top-shelf design and specs to realize this is a piano that is in a class by itself.

Let’s start first with the action, Using Kawai’s ingeniously designed Millenium III action, which uses carbon fiber components that are so light, stable, and strong. Combine this with the extended key lengths and a Neotex key finish which gives you the understated texture of ivory and ebony. and you have an action that has unparalleled control, speed and allows the musician to truly become one with the piano.

The bridge performs the vital task of transferring the vibrations of the strings to the soundboard. The Kawai GX-7 features a single, continuous bridge that helps to smooth the transitions between bass and treble registers. The treble bridge is also vertically laminated with 13 layers of maple and mahogany for maximum strength and optimal transfer of sound energy.

The tapered, solid spruce soundboard is constructed using only the straightest grain wood, hand-matched by Kawai artisans, to ensure the strings, bridges, and soundboard work together to produce the deep and powerful tone musicians demand and the light, crystal clear, bell-like tone of the high end when playing the piano ever so soft.

A culmination of these key features combined with an extra-large stretcher bar to help boost the power and maintain tuning stability, a specifically designed core system that maximizes the reflective capability of the inner rim for outstanding tonal power and sustains, is what makes the GX7 grand piano the definitive choice of professional pianists.

Available in an ebony polish finish and a satin ebony finish, it comes with a beautiful matching bench, a full 10-year warranty on all parts and labour, and even an extra hard music desk that is super resistant to scuffing and scratches.

Features

• Kawai’s Exclusive Millennium III Action – Featuring ABS-Carbon Technology with Carbon Fiber
• Exclusive NEOTEX™ Key Surfaces – With moisture-absorbing properties for greater touch control
• Konsei Katagi Rim – Utilizing a blend of distinctive hardwoods to achieve an ideal balance of tone
• Vertically Laminated Bridge with Solid Maple Cap – For enhanced energy transfer
• Continuous Bridge – For smoother transitions between bass and treble registers
• Elegant Appointments – Brass Lid Prop and Cups, Brass Finials on Plate, Beveled Lid Edges, Spade Legs
• Hard Finish Music Desk – To preserve the piano’s beauty
• Stretcher Over-Lap Integrated Design (SOLID) – Double-width Stretcher Bar for optimum strength
• Extended Length Keysticks – For more even response from the front to the back of each key
• Concert-Length Key Buttons – Doubled in length to provide maximum energy transfer and optimum power
• Solid Spruce Precision Tapered Soundboard – Permanently crowned for long-term stability
• Advanced Scale Designs – Created in the Shigeru Kawai Research and Development Laboratory
• Dual-Duplex Scaling – For added tonal richness
• Multi-Grip Pin Block – Laminated with 11 plies
• Solid Brass Agraffes – For even string spacing and easier tuning
• Steel-Reinforced, Multi-Laminated Keybed – For strength and optimum energy transfer
• Steel-ReinforcedKeyslip – For strength and stability that avoids sticking keys
• V-Pro Plate – Gray Iron with “Crossbone” Design
• Ultra-slow “Soft Fall” Fallboard Closing System
• Adjustable Artist Bench (Polished Ebony finish only)
• KAWAI Ten Year FULL Transferable Manufacturer’s Warranty

Action

The Kawai GX7 uses Kawai’s incredible Millennium III action that has been over 40 years in development.

For years, piano actions have been built out of wood and piano manufacturers have long known that there is an inherent inconsistency of wood parts, which can impair a piano’s tone and touch—and lead to costly repairs and maintenance. It’s because wood is susceptible to humidity and heat change – causing the wood parts to expand or contract – affecting the integrity of the action with things like sticking keys and noisy clicking.

In 2004, Kawai introduced the Millenium III carbon fiber action. After years of successfully using ABS in action parts, Kawai upgraded to carbon fiber. Carbon fiber has been called the lightest, strongest material on earth. In Kawai pianos, it allows a lighter design that helps to make our Millennium III Action tremendously fast and effortless to play while sustaining an exceptional tone. The rigid character of ABS-Carbon also offers pianists more power with less effort. Its resistance to shrinking and swelling helps to provide these benefits consistently over many years – something conventional wood components are unable to deliver.

Tone

The physics of amazing tone relies not only on high-end spruce in the soundboard and a combination of a superior blend of hardwoods in the rims and bridges and hammers, but it is the skill set of the artisans that create the scale and match all parts in the exact, proper design. When we look at a quick history of Kawai – we can see why the tone of all Kawai pianos are so respected and preferred worldwide.

Kawai uses a tapered soundboard that is made from spruce that is hand-picked by skilled technicians. They then match this with vertically laminated bridges, a unique core design that helps push the sound to the most powerful point on the soundboard.

Finally, the inner rim is constructed of small-pored hardwoods that provide superior brightness and projection are inter-laminated with dense, large-pored hardwoods offering warmth and fullness. This synergy of structural divergent hardwoods produces a powerful, well-rounded richness of tone that is the hallmark of Kawai pianos.

Incorporate all of the design features in a piano the magnitude of the GX7 and the result is a tone that has incredible but clear, awesome power, yet the ability to create a light, almost playful subtleties when played ever so quietly. Then add the incredible design that allows you to blend the full range of the color, texture, harmonics, and expression across the entire range of the keyboard, and you have an instrument that you will absolutely love and want to sit down and play – again and again.

Hammers

In order to realize the pianist’s infinite range of expression, the Kawai GX7 utilizes premium grand piano hammers. These hammers are constructed from wood that possesses excellent acoustic properties, with hammer felt prepared from the finest quality long-haired New Zealand and Australian wool. These felted hammers have a soft, delicate exterior, yet are tight and rigid on the inside.

When playing pianissimo passages, the strings are struck by the delicate exterior felt of the hammer to produce a soft and gentle tone, while fortissimo passages utilize the tighter, harder interior felt, thus producing a louder, more powerful sound.

Moreover, all hammers are under-felted in order to further improve their resilience. These steps allow experienced piano technicians to perform the most subtle voicing adjustments in order to maximize the instrument’s exquisite sonic potential. Delivering a broad range of tonal color from pianissimo to fortissimo, and a rich variety of musical expressions.

Soundboard

Kawai’s GX7 soundboard is constructed using the finest solid spruce wood which is carefully hand-selected by experienced craftsmen in order to achieve rich, deep bass tones, and bright, colorful, sustaining treble tones.

The soundboard is also tapered meaning the soundboard is sanded to gradually become thinner toward the edges. This design allows the soundboard to vibrate most freely, providing better tone and longer, stronger sustain. It is an extra step that is omitted from most lower-priced pianos yet one of the key parts in utilizing the full advantage of superior spruce on a superior design.

Cabinet/Rim

There are actually 2 rims in a grand piano – the outer rim – and the inner rim.

The outer rim is what we see when we look at the outside of the piano, which forms its unique shape and where you see it finished with wood veneers or a beautiful polished ebony finish.

The inner rim, where the internal workings of the piano such as the plate, soundboard, and pinblock rests, plays a much more integral part in the sound of the piano. It acts like an acoustic mirror that reflects sound energy back into the soundboard for optimum power and sustains.

The exclusive Konsei Katagi Rim uses a blend of distinctive hardwoods to achieve an ideal balance of tone.