Hi William and list, Indeed, the USA has deserts and other area's that are completely different climatewise and I have been wondering about that myself many times in regard to the Yamaha policy. I have no answer to that. On the other hand, at least they try to protect their products by adapting them to specific climatic conditions before they leave the factory (I don't know of other factories doing the same). However, it did and does create the guarantee problems we know if one ships instruments made for the tropics to for instance cold and/or dry climates, resulting in the term 'grey market'. On the other hand, I know of factories in China and other Asian countries where Asian made piano's are re-conditioned for use in other parts of the world and sometimes remarkably well done. That answers the need for 'affordable' instruments with a trustworthy name and we now have piano dealers who speciallize in selling 'grey market' piano's only and who make much more money than the regular piano dealers. In other words, a whole new market has been created. I have worked with many Asian brands, new, old and grey (; and my final conclusion is that they all serve a need. In some cases some 'grey' importers want to make a quick buck by not paying enough attention to the quality level of their imported products resulting in unhappy customers and sometimes even lawsuits. Next to being a piano technician I am also a certified appraisor, so I know this story well, seen from different perspectives. Friendly greetings From André Oorebeek Antoni van Leeuwenhoekweg 15 1401 VW Bussum the Netherlands +31 652 388008 +31 35 6975840 oorebeek at gmail.com www.concertpianoservice.nl "where music is no harm can be" Sent from my iPhone On Mar 27, 2010, at 3:08, William Monroe <bill at a440piano.net> wrote: > I think the point to be taken home is that though Yamaha dries the > wood in three different ways, it is a false premise to suggest that > one particular level of drying will suit the dramatic climatic > extremes found in North America. North America has desert climates > (consistently very low RH levels), tropical climates (consistently > very high RH levels), and temperate climates in which the RH > fluctuates wildly from very highs to very lows. In the end, though > Yamaha "seasons specifically" the process does us essentially no > good here in North America. > > I see more reason to accept Yamaha US's argument against Grey market > as one of cost and supporting a product that was retailed in another > country - which should be supporting that product. That at least > has some "business sense" to it (whatever that is ;-]). > > William R. Monroe > > > > > 2010/3/26 André Oorebeek <concertpianoservice at planet.nl> > I was in Hamamatsu three times and there are three climate halls : > > one for dessert climates like Saudi Arabia > one for the domestic market and the tropics > one for North America and Europe > > A grey market Yamaha is not necessarily a bad buy. > They are sometimes remarkably good and have not really suffered that > much from for instance the climate in Japan. > It also depends on the age. > I know a dealer here who sells fairly young Yamaha's only and there > is nothing wrong with them, except the price : > not expensive (; > > friendly greetings from > André Oorebeek > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100327/4b9b0fd4/attachment.htm>
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