J Patrick Draine wrote: > > As someone who has serviced gray market pianos which were sold to be used > in performance venues (and were woefully inadequate), I applaud this "first > salvo" against these worn out pianos sold to an unsuspecting public. Patrick et alii, I have another perspective on used Yamaha pianos from Japan. Your experience may be based on pianos that came, sight unseen, out of a container and, understandably, would be of dubious quality. However, there is some wheat amongst all the chaff. I have serviced many gray-market Yamahas that were sold locally by a dealer who orders individual, mostly A-graded instruments from an importer. The only B-ratings were due to some minor finish damage. So far, these pianos have compared very favorably to US-bought pianos with one notable exception: the finish on a couple of the grand soundboards had a very rough surface of unknown cause. Otherwise, quality in general has been above what I've seen in the average stateside-bought Yamahas of the same age. The ones that I've been tuning for years show no sign of deterioration out of the ordinary. Bill Brandom said that they may not hold up well in the average American home. Any piano which, having spent some years in a humid environment, is then moved to a dry climate, will tend to experience problems eventually. However, since our sea coast climate is very similar to Japan's, I would have to say that the gray-markets are well-suited to this area and I frequently recommend them. It is a reality that a large number of used Yamahas are being shipped to the US. We now know, from the Tech Gazette ad, that Yamaha is not providing any service or parts support for these gray market pianos in the hopes of discouraging their purchase. As it is, so many people buy pianos, without consulting anyone, from salespersons who "look honest". I'm not so sure that Yamaha can stem the tide with a few stern words to piano technicians. We can, as technicians, alert buyers who consult us as to the origin of these pianos (grey-markets usually have service record holders inside the rim [grands] or on the back of the music board [uprights]) and advise as to whether or not the local climate might be suitable. We might even convince a few dealers to be a little more choosy about what they buy. It is unfortunate that the unscrupulous dealers are effectively making a bad name for Yamaha by selling worn out or defective pianos. But if dealers are determined to buy container lots from these importers, then I don't know how we technicians can educate them if they are so ethically challenged. These suckers that are born every minute will buy pianos from them just like they bought the substandard spinets and cheap grands. It's a part of the market too, I guess. Tom -- Thomas A. Cole, RPT Santa Cruz, CA mailto:tcole@cruzio.com
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