Gray Market Yamahas

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

Not to beat an old horse to death, but yesterday I had another run in with a 
gray market Yamaha. This was a 1955 9 foot piano in a church. They church 
bought it from an outfit in Louisiana for $17,000. The only good thing about 
it was the ivory keytops. The hammers were flat, and they had sprayed gold 
over the pin area, so the pins were corroded, and starting to slip. The trap 
work was also falling apart. 

In our discussions about these instruments, besides the fact that some of 
them are falling apart, one of the other drawbacks is that the dealers 
selling these things do not want to, or don't have the ability to, prepare 
these instruments. As I said, the hammers on this one were flat, which caused 
a lot of strings to break, and there was virtually no sound coming out of the 
piano. Of course this church thought they were getting a bargain. The 
minister was not too happy when I told him it will cost another $6000 to make 
it right. 

Willem Blees