Disklavier

I know my opinions may seem a little crusty at times when it comes to buying 
used Disklaviers and/or used pianos in general, but after 23 years of 
dealing with the tears and unmet expectations of purchasers trying to save a 
little money, I would like to say a few things.

1.	If possible, go in person to play and hear the piano before you buy it.  
Not all pianos play and sound alike.  Basically, what you hear and see is 
what you get.  If you don\ufffdt like the tuning or voicing, and these things 
cannot be adjusted on the spot as you watch to your liking, chances are the 
situation won\ufffdt be much better in your living room.  If you decide to buy 
the instrument, get the serial number on the purchase agreement.

2.	If you are buying the piano from a distant vendor, and cannot evaluate it 
yourself, hire a Registered Piano Technician to check it out first.  Not all 
piano technicians are familiar with Disklaviers, so talk about this first.  
You can get a list of Registered Piano Technicians from www.ptg.org or call 
Yamaha at 1-800-854-1569 to recommend someone in your area.  Have the 
technician supply you with the serial number.

3.	Make sure you know exactly what features you are getting.  You can always 
post to this website and get an answer as to what the various models 
include.  Basically it comes down to how much you want to mess around trying 
to do what you want to do.  The oldest and most basic Disklaviers will play 
the piano from floppy disks you buy from Yamaha and will play standard MIDI 
files from an attached computer.  Everything else is optional or is included 
in a succesion of upgraded models.  Extra features include whether or not 
the DKV will play standard MIDI files from the floppy disk drive, what kinds 
of floppy disks are useable, incremental pedaling, upgradeable flash rom, a 
tone generator for Ensemble sounds, speakers, headphones, Silent System, 
Smart Key and Piano Smart, a stereo audio system, and a CD player.

4.	Make sure you are buying a piano constructed for the part of the world 
you will be using it in; i.e. avoid purchasing a Gray Market piano.  If you 
live in North America, you don\ufffdt want a piano designed soley for an Asian 
climate.  Most homes in North America have a forced air heating system so 
the relative humidity can get as low as 10%rh in the winter. If the piano 
was contructed from wood with 12% moisture content, instead of a 5% moisture 
content there is a risk of the piano changing radical dimensions during 
seasonal changes.  This can result in the finish cracking and falling off 
the cabinet, the soundboard flattening during the dry season, the pinblock 
not holding the tuning pins tight enough to hold a tuning, and the piano 
action being plagued by intermittent sticking keys.  The electronics may 
also not be UL approved, so no vendor in their right mind will risk a 
product liability lawsuit to sell you replacement parts.

5.	Remember that the lowest price is not always the best value.  Buying an 
instrument from a local vendor not only puts your sales taxes to work in 
your own community, but gives someone else in your locality a vested 
interest in your satisfaction.  It is certainly easier for a vendor to sell 
a piano (sometimes still in its original packing crate) far, far away if it 
fell off the fork lift than to be responsible for its performance locally!  
Moving companies, or their agents, are also a source of \ufffdgood deals\ufffd.  Many 
times a long-distance moving company will claim to have expertise moving 
pianos only to send out an inexperienced crew.  Pianos are dropped on steps 
all the time and a good polyester touch-up man can hide such damage well.

6.	How many of you are still using your IBM 8088 computers \ufffd you know, the 
ones with 64k ram?  Before CD players were invented?  1987 does not sound 
like a very long time in the past, but in the world of electronics it is 
ancient history.  Neither pianos, nor the disk drives on Disklaviers, will 
last forever.  You should factor in the cost or repairs when buying an older 
model.  A new floppy drive will cost at least $300, and the retail price of 
the DSR1 upgrade (tone generator, plays all standard MIDI files on both HD 
and DD disks, memory) is $1295.  The cost of the CD player is $1295 and it 
still does not do PianoSmart.  And those are just for starters.

7.	Perhaps it is helpful to think of buying a piano/Disklavier in the same 
terms as buying a car.  They cost about the same amount of money.  Cars all 
have 4 tires, brakes and steering, and an engine, and they don\ufffdt last 
forever. But there is an incredible range of  options available.  Buying a 
used Disklavier can be like buying a Mercedes with  150,000 miles on it.  
Buyer Beware.


Carol Beigel
crbrpt@...




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