[CAUT] Yamaha Avant Grand Digital questions

Paul T Williams pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu
Wed Sep 29 08:04:45 MDT 2010


Actually, I'm just the "foreman" on moves.  The only thing I do on normal 
grands is to take of the lyre and pop off the legs.  Moving Services do 
the grunt work and strapping up.  Did I mention that the legs on this 
Avant has SIX bolts per leg with a 5/8"hex- head!! Talk about over-kill!!

Paul




From:
Dennis Johnson <johnsond at stolaf.edu>
To:
caut at ptg.org
Date:
09/29/2010 08:52 AM
Subject:
Re: [CAUT] Yamaha Avant Grand Digital questions



Hi Paul-

Our department seriously considered buying one of these when they first 
came out mostly to save on piano moving costs, but as you point out- it 
doesn't move easily enough.  It's unfortunate that should be considered 
your responsibility though.  In our case the question was if students 
and/or grounds crew could easily move it with their other orchestra equip, 
and the answer we got back was no.  

best,

Dennis Johnson
______

On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 3:54 PM, Paul T Williams <
pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:
I'm very flustered in why it doesn't have all the flavors and many sounds 
of the Clavinova's.  It sounds just like one.  The touch is a bit closer 
to a grand, and it even has the "bump" feel of where the let off buttons 
and dropscrew connect;  but it still doesn't feel the same as a real 
piano, and of course doesn't sound anything like a real piano. 

I tried to discourage this, but it came anyway.(so goes my weight in the 
dept!...and I have some)  The only thing that works really well was our 
Jazz in June series when they play outside in the beating sun and I don't 
have to tune it! i love that part!  However, I'm still in charge of moving 
it to the venue. 

Paul 





From: 
Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> 
To: 
CAUTlist <caut at ptg.org> 
Date: 
09/26/2010 03:26 PM 
Subject: 
[CAUT] Yamaha Avant Grand Digital questions





Hi All, 

Do any of you have one of these new Yamaha Avant Grand digital "grand" 
shaped pianos?  We just purchased one...not from my input, but the 
director's. Only he and the Dean likes it.  I really need some help! 

So, anyway, we have one. 

Since they're only 48" long, they're very strange to move and weigh nearly 
450lbs.  There are no piano trucks I've found to put one on, and we'll 
still need to move it like a grand on it's side on a moving board to get 
through our normal doors and the elevator.  As nice as our Director thinks 
it is, it is to be a nemesis in my pants....rear side!!  I need to move it 
several times in the next 8 weeks and then it will "live" in our new 
Digital Arts" prof's office.  It has some nice features like Midi in and 
out. But, it only has 5 voices like two grand "sounds", two digital piano 
"sounds" and a "harpsichord" sound.  Also, each leg has 6 bolts and the 
lyre has nearly as many, so...lots of time to dismantle and re-assemble. 

As lame as this sounds, since I'm stuck with the moving duties:  how do I 
instruct our moving service fellows to move this thing safely?  Should I 
make some sort of wedge thingy for the moving board as the only "straight" 
side on either side of it is just 24" long??? The weight distribution 
seems pretty evenly distributed. It's nearly impossible to strap on a 
board safely. 

None of us here are thrilled with this new purchase besides the director 
and dean, so we're all scratching our heads on why did we buy this, where 
is it useful and how to move it, although the professors in the orchestra 
dept think it's great, but then again, they don't think logistically, and 
they'll never need to move it. 

Would love some input from anybody! HELP! 

Thanks 
Paul 






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