Hi Paul, and List We got a couple of these instruments - one upright version (the model N2), and one grand (the N3) on loan for our summer festival. The grand was used for an outdoor performance, and the upright was shunted around from venue to venue (I built a very simple dolly to move it around on). Under such circumstances they proved to be very useful, but such circumstances are more the exception than the rule. You're right - the grand is as much of a pain to move as any regular grand piano. It's hard to tell which leg to take off first, and which side to stand the piano up on. And it's quite heavy. The upright is fairly heavy too, but not like the grand. It has no casters at all, but moving it wasn't so bad once I built the dolly for it; two guys could just lift the whole thing up onto the dolly and roll it anywhere. As far as touch is concerned, both versions have an actual grand piano action in them, so they feel much more "real" than any other digital instrument I've tried. But of course they'll need occasional regulation if they're going to continue to feel right. Tone-wise, they sounded closer to the real thing than any other digital product I've heard (but I'm not really up on all the stuff that's currently out there). I think the mass of the instrument provides a solid foundation for good tone production. Some of the pianists who tried them were quite impressed, but all of them still felt somewhat "disconnected" from the sound due to its being electronically generated. They're well-made instruments, but I think the niche is a fairly small one. My fiftieth of a dollar, Bert --- On Wed, 9/29/10, Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote: From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Yamaha Avant Grand Digital questions To: caut at ptg.org Received: Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 10:04 AM 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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100930/c6ac0af7/attachment-0001.htm>
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