John, There was evidence presented to you by me. I told you that I had first hand knowledge of the seasoning diferences between Asian and American Yamahas. I have forwarded your request to those at Yamaha that can shed some light on this for you. I will allow them to tell you what the differences are in moisture content. As to quality differences, I noticed that the keybeds are different on the grey market. No keybed glides... even at times. The scale designs are different as Mark Wisner already discribed. The soundboards are much more apt to crack or have severe pressure ridges when they see their first year or two here. That is not to say they are bad for Australia just that these are concerns we have here. This should not be a long debated topic. Yamaha is not trying to pull a scam. They say in their literature that they season for destination because they DO. If they were not telling the truth, other companies would take them to task for this. No company is questioning this. It is fact. We have what Yamaha discribes as an exta dry or super dry relative humidity levels in our homes. When they first came to this country Yamaha discovered the need to change the piano and engineer a lower moisture content to the wood to help the pianos stability here. When they did this, the problems went away. (an over- generalization) The quality differences will be left for you to discover. I have mentioned a few of them. Play these imports, then play the domestic Yamahas and you will hear the differences. Any technician that works with YAMAHA knows the integrity that the company has. They handle warranty work with speed and caring, as well as go the extra mile to help a technician at any time. They have paid to bring over 300 technicians through the Little Red Schoolhouse and continue to help the Guild whenever asked. Ed Tomlinson (a fan of Yamaha) Vancouver Wa
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC