James; For 2 1/2 years, I worked Salesman/Technician for a very large Yamaha Dealer in Washington DC who sold these pianos. The only reason he sold them is because the guy down the street sold them. If we did not stock them we would loose business to our competitor. I have been told that the reason these pianos are bought from Japanese is because the Japanese feel that a piano has led some useful life when it reaches a certain age, so they export them. (I think that the one's we bought were from Colleges and Universities and Schools.) They export them to the US because we will buy them. Sooner or later the Chinese or whoever will buy them too ... they have to be sold somewhere. I also believe that it is good business to get rid of used pianos in certain markets in order to stimulate the market for new instruments. Some piano companies in the past have been known to buy used pianos and then destroy them to keep them off the market and thus inflate new piano sales. When a dealer buys these (two pedal grands) pianos, they can buy the pianos in different grades. Basically they are four or five grades. For example A,B,C,D. "A" being the best and "D" the worst. "A"'s are more expensive and "D"'s are very cheep. "A grade" is the best with hardly anything wrong with them they are the most expensive. The case is in nice shape probably needs a good cleaning, regulation, hammer filing, tuning is usually close to 440, tuning pins are very good ... etc. Not much different than the pianos you might find in a good customers home. They are about 8 to 10 years old. “B grade” needs some work. The case has damage scuffs and scratches, they are very dirty, a good touch up man can take care of this usually by a good buffing and through cleaning, definitely need regulation, hammer filing, several tunings, may need some new strings, tuning pins are usually OK. Not much different than the pianos you might find in a average customers home. “C grade has some serious problems but they don’t need to be rebuilt. The case is worse than “B grade” polyester repair is usually needed along with polishing the case. All other areas of the piano need work. Some parts may be broken but the piano “may” work OK if much time and effort is put into it. No guarantees though. “D” pianos are not very good at all .. missing parts … cracks in the board .… usual severe case damage .… sometimes water damage, need re-stringing etc… If you have a good rebuilding area you may make these work. I have found the A and B instruments to be good choices for some customers. I usually recommend a complete climate control system to be installed on all pianos. (At least in the climates I have worked in). I believe that a dealer is obgliated and responsible to make sure that all the work necessary is done to place the instrument in VERY GOOD SHAPE. Generally speaking a dealer needs a skillful full time staff technician to take care of the instruments. Salary technician is much cheaper than paying an outside tech if they have enough volume of work to keep the technician busy. In a nut shell, Some of these pianos are Very Good and some are are Very Bad. It is up to the dealer or technician to consider the needs of the customer and give appropriate advice when asked. Hope this helps Garret Traylor — | Garret Traylor | Equal Temperament Piano Services | Okinawa Japan | | Associate Member at Large | Washington DC Chapter Piano Technicians Guild | | E-mail: traylorg@kic.or.jp | Web-page: http://www.kic.or.jp/~traylorg/ | | Snail Mail: PSC 482 Box 14 FPO, AP 96362-0014 | James Grebe wrote: > > Dear list, > Just to make sure you know what I mean about imported Yamahas. I am > talking about older and near new Yamahas originally for the Japanese market > and our importers here buying them in droves and reselling the here. > Doesn't anyone have long term experience with these. I've only had 2 > replies. > James Grebe in St. Louis > pianoman@inlink.com
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