are yahamas the be all of second hand pianos

davgtrek

hi
i've had good chats with 2 reputable piano dealers. dealer A was informative and has some nice 70-80's pianos that fitted the bill.
Dealer B in a 10minute conversation ( about second hand pianos in the 1.5-3k bracket ) mentioned yahama at least 10 times.

A big part of B's point was that yahama are a household name and when it comes to selling on people will go for it before a lesser known name.

Now thats handy if it was a car but surely a lovely sounding/working french/english etal. piano will be as good as the equivalent yahama and any discerning buyer would look past the name.

( i haven't a clue about pianos but as you can see by my posts and questions i am trying to filter out sales pitch and learn as much as possible from your collective wisdom before buying. surely a lot of people would take this approach )

both A & B are hefty drives for me and my instinct says go for A as I reckon B would not let me leave the shop without going for a yahama....

what are yere thoughts on yahama.

thanks

Doshea3

Some Yamahas are brilliant, some are crap...but most of them are pretty good in fairness (and the general standard of second-hand uprights is very good).

I have a second-hand Yamaha upright I bought a few years ago. It does me well and I'm happy with it.

But of course because it's a household name is no reason to choose it over an equally good other piano. Though the advantage of Yamahas is that they're generally well-made and therefore will last a long time in most environments.

But be careful of pushy piano salesmen...they might appear to know what they're talking about, but some of them don't!

davgtrek

Thanks D for advice.
so fair enough the if yahama are very good value and reliable and "toyota corolla".
a lot to be said for that these days !!

any models of yam better than others in that price bracket 2-3k.

ever hear of Rameau pianos.... any good ?

thanks again

Doshea3

No problem, glad I was some help! Kawais are also excellent. Avoid places like Waltons (which will sell you horrendous pianos like Kohler and Campbell) and pianos named after composers (such as 'Rameau'!!). Most mid-price German or Japanese pianos are reliable. Samwick and Weinbach (and *some* Petrof) uprights are decent too...

davgtrek

Thanks to all and DOshea.
Just bought a 1976 U1 yesterday in cork.
It is in lovely condition. It was bought new in UK and spent its life in a house there. The shop in cork does all his own work and if the dealer is an important factor in buying a piano then I'm happy.

on a side note. for my budget its near impossible to buy an alternative.
i tried 3 shops and I cant see how anyone would find anything apart from a yahama. they really have the market sewn up.

Dealer also talked me away from a U3 claiming that it doesn't have a perfect transition from bass to treble ranges. very very subtle but he felt it was there.

thanks again

Doshea3

Most welcome davgtrek! Glad you've finally got sorted. Best of luck with the new piano.

philopus109

the yamaha grands (dont know much about thee uprights) tend to "do a petrof" after plenty of practice. In other words, they lose character and get a very bright sound. Kawai will last better even their uprights are better. Other than Kawai, pianos in this price range are probably not as good. Schimmel and August Forster are good too.