Your Yamaha and Kawai Authorized Piano Dealer in Upstate NY

Is that used Yamaha piano really a good deal?

Importers bring Yamaha pianos that are seasoned only for the Japanese domestic market to the U.S. where Americans, unaware of the risks, will pay a premium for them. Here's how to tell the difference and avoid being duped.

On Yamaha's serial number lookup page, you can enter the serial number of the used Yamaha piano you are considering to see if it is a gray-market piano.

There seems to be no end to the debate about Yamaha pianos that are imported to the U.S., despite the manufacturer's intended destination. Is it just hype or are there some real concerns?

Ever since the first shipments of Yamaha pianos back in the 1960's failed in certain North American climates, Yamaha pianos have been "seasoned for destination." Seasoning wood components is an expensive process that starts with air-drying the wood for several months and then kiln-drying them to bring the equalized moisture content (EMC) as low as needed to ensure stability (as low as 3% for some critical parts).

Whereas the Japanese climate is certainly varied, pianos meant for its domestic market do not require that the wood components be seasoned as long or as rigorously as those destined for the U.S. To illustrate the difference between Japanese and U.S. climate conditions, consider that Japan is about the size of California in land area, most anywhere in Japan is no more than 130 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and Japan's largest desert area is only about 15 square miles!

So why doesn't Yamaha just make all the pianos the same? As mentioned above, seasoning is expensive. Adding cost to their domestic pianos would only serve to make Yamaha less price-competitive in Japan.

So why does Yamaha care if gray-market pianos are sold in the U.S.? Yamaha has built one of the best reputations ever achieved in the 300 year history of the piano industry. Most people who buy gray-market pianos do so unknowingly, as most people who sell gray-market pianos do not disclose the pianos' origin. Therefore, any problems the consumer experiences with the piano may be wrongfully attributed to Yamaha quality.

This does not mean that every "gray-market" piano is destined to fail in the U.S. But we feel it is important to consider the risks - especially here in the northeast, where our huge temperature and humidity swings can really test pianos to their limits. Piano quality is never so important as it is in the northeast U.S.

Isn't this just hype to keep people from buying used pianos instead of new pianos? To the right is a photo of signage in a Yamaha factory in Japan, taken by our owner, Jo Beth Dillinger, before gray-market pianos really ever became an issue. It denotes that the pianos in the storage area are managed separately, depending on a piano's eventual destination. New Yamaha sales are not hurt nearly as much as grey-market sellers might have a consumer believe: the only things at risk are Yamaha's reputation and your hard-earned money!

From a standpoint of risk-management, we strongly feel our customers are better served by purchasing new or by purchasing used pianos that were seasoned correctly for the Northeast.  

What does Yamaha actually have to say about all this? Below is a copy of an article about gray-market pianos with official statements from Yamaha on the risks involved in purchasing gray-market pianos.