Yamaha LU-90 ...and other indonesian attrocities

[Elian Degen J.]

Hello List, and Mark

Thank you for your feedback about LU90, I was beginning to think that the
only place were that piano was shipped was to Venezuela.

I am going to do a brief recount of my story again.

Four years ago when those pianos arrived for the first time to Venezuela.
(You are right, they are assembled in Indonesia with Japanese parts )

In that occasion, I almost refused to see them anymore, I also sent a fax to
Indonesia through Yamaha from Venezuela. The pianos arrived "not suitable
for human use"  Unregulated action, was manageable. Unvoiced hammers. also
manageable, but the worst atrocities was loose tuning pins, it had both,
loose and jumpy tuning pins.

Indonesia was most cooperative, they even sent oversized tuning pins to
correct the problem, of course Yamaha of Venezuela had to pay for work, and
I became one of the registered Venezuelan techs who would never recommend
the instrument.

Now, they called me again. they received new pianos, I accepted to see them,
I covered tuning for a customer who bought one, Yamaha Venezuela knows me
and asked me to evaluate the piano. By what I saw, the instrument had been
improved over the one I saw before, Tuning pins are not loose anymore,
Action was in better shape, better regulation, and it is easier to regulate.
Sound is not bad considering the price of the instrument. If customer is
willing to pay I could voice it also.  I am willing to tell Yamaha that the
instrument is right for the price, but I would like to have opinions from
other techs who worked on this instrument. my main  worry concerns are with
the pinblock preparation, and soundboard. I suspect they are not assembling
the instrument in a properly dry environment as to ship it overseas.  I
would like to know if this could be correct

Elian Degen


----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Bolsius <markbolsius@optusnet.com.au>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, September 27, 1999 7:00 AM
Subject: Re: Yamaha LU-90 ...and other indonesian attrocities


>
> From Elian Degan
> > I would like to know if any have come across Yamaha Model LU 90,  We =
> > have been getting this model since four years more or less,  This piano
=
> > is made by Yamaha out of Japan, it is a low priced model.=20
>
> G'day Elian,
>
> We get the LU-90 in Australia too, but ours is "assembled" in Indonesia
> using Japanese compoinents. The pinblock is different to the Japanese ones
> (I actually like it a little better), the tone (not the right word!)
> ....well...OK next point, the s/board and cabinet is also Indonesian.
>
> Personally, I'm not thrilled by any of these low-enders, but it does a
job,
> and I'm dying to see another one soon so that I can try Roger's steam
> voicing on it...perfect candidate.
>
> BTW, we also get Samicks that are Indonesian assembled/constructed....I
> wonder what effect the East Timer crisis will have on the market for
these?
> Will public backlash slow things down?
>
> Cheers
> Mark Bolsius
> Canberra Australia