[pianotech] Grey Market Yamaha/Kawai

[Larry Fisher RPT]

I’ve had minimal exposure to “Grey Market” pianos in this area and my experience is that they are hit and miss.  One dealer in Tacoma used to bring in container loads of pianos at a time claiming they were purchased on the west side of the Pacific Ocean and refurbished to look, sound and play like new as they chugged their way across the ocean with an on board rebuilding crew.  I had to locate a piano for a church and so I took a trip up to his “showroom” to check out each piano he had in stock at the time.  I found one with keytops missing, another with no crown in the soundboard and yet another that had finish failures.  I finally picked one and sold it to a church.  It is a two pedal grand that looks and sounds really nice.  I haven’t tuned it now for many years but it’s been in that church for over 15 years and has satisfied the needs of the church membership far better than the piano they had.  It may have a few exceedingly jumpy tuning pins in the temperament octave but other than that it’s a perfectly usable instrument.

I’ve seen others on a dealer’s floor that should never have been put up for sale.

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