Description
Why buy from us? We have been in the piano restoration & tuning business since 1953, expertly restoring, repairing and tuning pianos for Radio 4, music colleges, and were former County Council contract school piano tuners and repairers for Dorset, Hampshire, West Sussex, Harrow and Bucks. Our experience and expertise is second to none. We sell only Pianos; your piano purchase is special to us and would love to continue the after care for years to come!
Available to order. Other finishes are at extra cost, price is for high polish black.
Please feel free to arrange a viewing of our other Kawai pianos and to further discuss your requirements at our Dorset showroom.
Whats included
- Price matching (T & A apply).
- Free delivery UK mainland ground floor.
- Expert in house multi point check by one of the UK’s most experienced piano technicians.
- Part exchange welcome.
- 10 Year warranty.
- One free tuning 4/8 weeks after delivery.
- Matching fully assembled non basic stool.
- Our over 100 years of experience in the piano restoration business.
The GX-1 offers a level of elegance and craftsmanship that is unsurpassed for a piano of its size.
The new standard of grand piano design is beyond imagination. Combining state-of-the-art technology with traditional craftsmanship. Applying knowledge and experience handed down from generation to generation. Defining the ‘made in Japan’ philosophy of piano building. Lightness of touch usually experienced by only the very finest concert pianists. Rich, vivid, expressive tone that inspires one’s creative passion. A new era of grand piano performance has arrived.
Joyous touch to awaken one’s imagination
Joyous touch to awaken one’s imagination
The new 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.
In order to achieve this ambitious goal, the length of the keyboard has been extended significantly, increasing the fulcrum distance for each key. This extended key pivot length results in a more consistent touch weight when playing towards the back of the keyboard, affording the pianist greater expressive control, and allowing one’s imagination to soar freely.
In addition, the GX Series’ advanced Millennium III keyboard action incorporates the latest materials; combining ABS resin with carbon fibre to further improve one’s playing experience. This ABS-Carbon compound is both highly rigid and extremely lightweight – characteristics that have seen the same material successfully employed throughout the aeronautics industry as a superior alternative to wood. By utilising action parts fashioned from ABS-Carbon, the GX Series’ keyboard action is more durable and less prone to performance degradation over time, while also delivering improved responsiveness and control. This evolution in keyboard touch can be experienced by the pianist with every key stroke, from the first to the very last note played.
Purity of tone that fills the room
In order to produce Kawai’s special tone, a broad range of woods are meticulously analysed for quality and character, before being selected as the finest materials for each specific purpose. The soundboard has arguably the most significant influence over a piano’s individual tonal elements. Therefore, woods that conform to the most rigorous gravity and propagation velocity standards are carefully selected by experienced craftsmen in order to achieve rich, deep bass tones, and bright, colourful, sustaining treble tones. In addition to the soundboard, bridges, and ribs, optimum materials for the inner-rim are also carefully considered, combining the unique properties of different hardwoods to create a layered hybrid construction. This produces a broad range of sound, allowing even greater expressive power.
In order to produce a richer, more immersive sound, the overall rigidity of the GX instruments’ body has also been improved. The thickness of the upper beam that attaches to the outer-rim is increased, allowing the pin blocks to support a tensile strength load of approximately 20 tons. As the tone of each note is improved, the sense of three-dimensional sound is also enhanced. Moreover, increasing the rigidity of the piano’s carbon steel tuning pins further strengthens the instruments’ tuning stability, to meet the rigorous demands of the finest pianists.
Quiet yet strong, loud yet delicate – unparalleled tonal expression
In order to realise the pianist’s infinite range of expression, the GX Series utilises 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 utilise 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 of voicing adjustments in order to maximise the instrument’s exquisite sonic potential. Delivering a broad range of tonal colour from pianissimo to fortissimo, and a rich variety of musical expression.
The instrument’s duplex scale system further enhances the harmonics of middle and upper-range tones, adding depth and breadth to the overall sound. And to ensure the ultimate touch at the keyboard surface – that magical point where the pianist and the piano become one – all GX instruments adopt premium Neotex coating for white and black keys. This unique material possesses moisture absorbent characteristics to enhance touch control and prevent mistakes, and inspires a sense of reassuring satisfaction within the pianist.
A lifetime of happiness, wrapped within a grand piano
Preserving the treasured design of a grand piano, while pursuing new details of elegance – this is the design concept of the GX Series. The instrument’s exterior design, with its gentle curves and broad music rest, establishing the traditional characteristics and captivating form of a grand piano. Expanding the instrument’s upper-beam thickness not only reinforces the piano’s overall structural rigidity, but also serves to further distinguish this exterior design, with Kawai’s highly prized painting and finishing process affording the piano body its distinctive, luxurious ebony polish appearance. However, the beauty of the GX Series truly shines upon opening the instrument’s top-board. The mesmerising brilliance of the glowing golden frame, the delicate woodwork and abundant expression of quality displayed along the inner rim, the luxurious elegance of rich black felt, and the reassuring display of hand-made craftsmanship – verified by the Kawai frame mark. These are the characteristics that embody the spirit of ‘THE GRAND’.
The Millennium III Action
The Millennium III Action features components made of ABS-Carbon, a composite material created by the infusion of carbon fiber into our renowned ABS Styran. ABS-Carbon is incredibly sturdy and rigid, which allows the creation of action parts that are lighter without sacrificing strength. The result is a stronger, faster action that offers more power, better control and greater stability than conventional all-wood actions.
Extended Length Keys Made By Spruce
Spruce is the ideal material for the keys – light, yet extremely strong for its weight. It responds with minimal flex and exceptional consistency, transmitting every subtle nuance of the pianist’s performance while remaining stable through years of heavy use. The length of each key has been extended to make playing easier and provide more even response from the front to the back of the playing surface. Keysticks are also designed with a slightly taller profile for maximum rigidity to deliver greater power.
NEOTEX Key Surface
Our exclusive NEOTEX key surface material made of cellulose fiber 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.
Rigid Foundation Of Key Stroke
The hammer rail is the “spine” of the piano’s action. GX series hammer rails are made of durable extruded aluminum with our exclusive Dual-Beam design for strength and stability. Both the hammer rail and the wippen rail are permanently locked in place to preserve the exacting tolerances of the action design and ensure consistent touch over the life of the piano. The entire surface of the hammer rail is finely serrated to hold each hammer flange securely in place for optimum hammer alignment, while the hammer flanges secured to the surface are made by PBT resin that enables the action screws to remain tight without shrinking and swelling. All these meticulous design features comprise the GX Series’ rigid foundation, ensuring a precise key stroke over time.
Tapered Soundboard Made Of Solid Spruce
The soundboard is the heart of a piano. Its purpose is to transform the vibrations of the piano’s strings into a rich, resounding tone. Kawai uses only straightgrained, quarter-sawn solid spruce for GX series soundboards. Each one is strategically tapered to provide the proper degree of resonant movement in each region. Only soundboards that meet or exceed our demanding resonance standards are selected for use in the GX series grand pianos.
CORE System
CORE is an acronym that represents “Convergence for Optimum Reflected Energy.” Convergence refers to the way the piano’s strength centers—the rim, plate and underside beams—all focus on one central point at the heart of the instrument. This focus creates an incredibly strong “core” foundation that maximizes the reflective capabilities of the inner rim for outstanding tonal power and sustain.
Hybrid Inner Rim (Konsei Katagi Rim)
The exclusive Konsei Katagi rim uses a blend of distinctive hardwoods to achieve an ideal balance of tone. For the inner rim, small-pored hardwoods that provide superior brightness and projection are interlaminated with dense, large-pored hardwoods offering warmth and fullness. This synergy of structurally divergent hardwoods produces a powerful, well-rounded richness of tone that is the hallmark of Kawai pianos.
Vertically Laminated Bridge
The bridge performs the vital task of transferring the vibrations of the strings to the soundboard. GX 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 energy.
SOLID (Stretcher Over-Lap Integrated Design)
SOLID construction creates an exceptionally rigid foundation to support string tension. First, the pinblock is fitted to the plate. Then, the pinblock and over-lapping stretcher bar are integrated into a single structure and solidly anchored to the rim. The extraordinary thickness of the stretcher bar exemplifies the structural integrity of this sturdy framework designed to ensure stable tuning and powerful tone.
V-Pro Plate
The plate is the acoustically-neutral iron superstructure of the piano over which the strings are tensioned.
All GX Series plates are molded using the Vacuum Mold Process (V-Pro) with “Crossbone Design.” The result is a plate that is strong, stable and beautiful.
“The Grand”
Preserving the treasured design of a grand piano, while pursuing new details of elegance – this is the design concept of the GX Series. The instrument’s exterior design, with its gentle curves and broad music rest, establishing the traditional characteristics and captivating form of a grand piano. Expanding the instrument’s upper-beam thickness not only reinforces the piano’s overall structural rigidity, but also serves to further distinguish this exterior design, with Kawai’s highly prized painting and finishing process affording the piano body its distinctive, luxurious ebony polish appearance.
However, the beauty of the GX Series truly shines upon opening the instrument’s top-board. The mesmerizing brilliance of the glowing golden frame, the delicate woodwork and abundant expression of quality displayed along the inner rim, the luxurious elegance of rich black felt, and the reassuring display of hand-made craftsmanship – verified by the Kawai frame mark. These are the characteristics that embody the spirit of ‘THE GRAND’.
Finally, the GX Series instruments feature useful mechanisms such as multi-angle piano lid props, and Kawai’s original ‘Soft Fall’ system, which closes the fallboard gently and slowly, protecting the player’s hands from jarring lid accidents.
No quibble 14 day return policy or exchange, customer is responsible for return.
