Kawai K-15 Upright Piano

Product Overview

The Kawai K-15 Continental Upright Piano measures 43.3” tall (or 110cm), and is Kawai’s smallest and most-affordable upright piano. Although a small piano, the K-15 has both an impressive tone and touch, and even outperforms many larger pianos. K15s are of course most popular in the ‘home market’, however, will also be found in many teaching studios, college/university practice rooms as well as other professional/institutional settings.

The piano has a warm, well-rounded tone with good clarity and projection. Both the bass tone and overall response in lower dynamic ranges are far above what’s expected of a piano in this price range.

The Kawai K-15 is manufactured in Kawai’s own, and highly-regarded Indonesian factory (along with the ND-21 and K-200 uprights) and comes well-prepped from the factory.

The K15 is made of high-quality componentry and includes some very desirable features such as: a premium spruce soundboard (for optimal tonal response and resonance), Kawai’s Ultra-Responsive ABS-Composite Action (extremely accurate and durable), a hard maple pinblock (for excellent tuning stability) as well as a well-built frame of 4 backposts which make it a stable, durable and more musical piano.

Available in either Polished Ebony or Mahogany Polished, the Kawai K15’s ‘no-frills’ approach to cabinetry makes this high-value piano look as good as it sounds!

If you’re a beginner student, hobbyist, or of course working with ‘a musician on a budget’; then the Kawai K-15 Upright Piano may be the perfect piano for you!

Action

The Kawai K15 Continental Upright Piano features the ABS Composite Action, which is the direct predecessor to the Millennium III action found in the K Series uprights. Kawai has been developing and refining this action for almost 40 years, and is one of the first widely adopted piano actions to successfully move away from wood.

The weight is heavier than what you’ll find in the Yamaha B series, which directly competes with the K15, but it’s not as heavy as the Millennium III in the larger Kawai K series uprights.

The K-15’s action comes very well prepped from the factory for a piano of its price, and feels very fluid and without any mechanical resistance right ‘out of the box’.

Tone

The tone of the Kawai K-15 is likely the most impressive thing about the whole instrument. Generally, pianos of this height fall short in a number of areas of the ‘tone department’, however, the K-15 sounds very much like a taller piano. It has very respectable bass clarity, good transitions between registers, and great overall response – even in lower dynamic ranges.

If you’re a client actively shopping for an upright piano under 6k, and a good tone is important to you, then you’ll be blown away when you sit behind a Kawai K15.

The K-15 offers a beyond satisfying tone to learn on for students or hobbyists, and even wins the ‘top value’ race with many professionals and light-medium use institutional settings

Hammers

Kawai makes their own hammers in house, and is one of very few piano manufacturer’s to continue this practice. The K-15 uses single-felted maple hammers.

Kawai is one of 3 piano manufacturers today to still produce their own hammers, and the K-15 features single felted maple-core hammers.

Soundboard

The Kawai K-15 is equipped with a high-quality Solid Spruce Soundboard, which is quite impressive considering its price range (many comparable pianos have laminated soundboards). The result is a far more complex tone, better projection, longer sustain, and way better response in lower dynamic ranges.

Rim/Cabinet

The K-15 Upright Piano from Kawai is designed in the ‘continental style’ and therefore has no front legs or wheels to keep the footprint as small as possible.

The case is equipped with 4 sturdy backposts which both improve the piano’s rigidity and durability, but also contribute to the tonal properties of the instrument.

4 backposts (increases rigidity of piano, also increases the amount of energy flowing through the case.

The K15 is available in either Ebony or Mahogany Polish.