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Kawai US50 Upright Piano Review
1. KAWAI US50, POPULAR UPRIGHT GRAND PIANO AFTER BL71
The Kawai US50 Upright GRAND Piano is a professional 131cm″ acoustic piano that is a part of the US-series of Upright Pianos, and one of the most popular upright grand model pianos from Kawai generally – the successor of KAWAI BL71. if you ask Piano Tan whether is it worth the upgrade from bl71 to us50, the answer is YES ! The us50 does bring a unique sound and power that other upright piano just simply isn’t capable of, and has been giving the kawai grand piano sounding since the release of US series. To be honest, US50 can easily defeat some of the baby grand piano in terms of tonality and also responsiveness.
Piano Tan believe that Kawai kinda regretted releasing the US series as it’s actually killing off some of their baby grand piano line. The US50 is part of a class of instruments which fall into an interesting grey zone ; the first professional upright grand that delivers a similar musical experience to a baby grand of a cheaper price. Lets dive in to check out what so great about US series.
As mentioned above, what you do get with US series pianos is the same build quality and high grade materials. The US50 feature mahogany wood core and double felted hammers, solid spruce tapered soundboards, extended key lengths and millennium 1 upright action. These high end design elements create an upright piano with beautiful tone and superb playability, with lots of effort designing the ultimate playing upright piano that save space. The US50 also share similar aesthetic design with the KAWAI BL71, us60, and most of the upright grand, except the book rak design might be different. They usually share in common a longer music desk.
2. Specification
| Size | 132(H) x 154(W) x 66(D) cm |
| Action | Millennium 1 |
| SoundBoard Material | Solid Spruce |
| Back Post | 6 |
| Tuning pin | Blued Pin |
| Key Surface | Neotex |
| Hammer | Mahogany |
| Duplex Scale | – |
| Center pedal | practice pedal |
| Music Rack | Grand Style |
| Fallboard | Grand Style |
Lets talk about the millennium 1 upright action. This is the same action that is found in their KSF, NS, BS series, which are newer compare to US series. The key components are made of ABS carbon composites action to strengthen the mechanism and eliminate extra mass compare to “ all wood” action. Its been measured to have the faster repetition speed compare to the previous model and the addition of the energy absorbing foam on the rest rail has not only increases the speed of bouncing back but also added greater control to fuel the pleasure of playing on a US series.
Other Major Features:
In addition to the longer bass strings, and the double-felted mahogany hammers, the US50 also features a tapered solid spruce soundboard that certainly contributes to an improved sustain and a huge dynamic range. The strong back posts give structural strength to assist in not sure tuning stability but also increasing the sympathetic resonance of the frame.
The music book stand is actually wide enough to hold 4 to 5 full sheets completely spread out. Anybody who’s ever had to be in a rehearsal or at home tackling one of these gigantic pieces of sheet music that just seemed to go on and on and on, are gonna get a lot of use out of this extra-wide music stand. When you compare it to what’s on most upright pianos, the rak is big enough and looks very grandeur even better looking when not placing any music sheets on it.
3. Tonality and Voicing
The second thing that they have done with the US50 is the double felted hammer (RED) and mahogany fitted. The double felted hammer creates some extra harmonics and thickens & strengthen the tone out of the piano, which produces stronger, powerful tone. Most of the felted hammers can be found on grand piano. Furthermore, US50 series features a longer bass string than average, which gives a more pronounced grand tone, the treble is also producing thickened but not too sharp tone. Moving to the top range, theres a lot more colour up there than you typically get from a normal kawai upright piano, clear and crisp but not feeling shallow or blur.
4. Advantage and Disadvatage
PROS : good value for money
PROS : Price will not depreciate, very very good resell value (we normally buyback 50-70%)
PROS : Great playing experience
Cons: price getting higher and higher as the demand getting higher but supply very less, hardly find us50 in the market sometimes.
5. Conclusion – Ideal Piano For Serious Player
| So, all in all, the US50 from Kawai is a very capable instrument. Who is the ideal customer? Piano Tan things that US50 is really an ideal instrument for serious player who wish to sit for grade 8 or diploma & degree music professional examination but do not have a space to cater for grand piano. Quite frankly speaking, if i were to choose to either play on a non kawai or yamaha baby grand or US50, i will definitely go for KAWAI US50. It deliver a broader musical experience than typical RM10-15K baby grand. |
