Disklavier

Hello Everyone,

Regarding a Disklavier imported from Japan, johnsound@... writes:

<< thanks for your reply.  But this is the situation: I am a piano technician
with over 25 yrs experience. I have little faith in the claims of Yamaha's
reasoning not to support the instrument due to climate/seasoning etc.>>

I am a consultant to the Piano Division of Yamaha, but not an employee. I 
don't make their policies and am not attempting to pass judgement on them. In 
my previous post, I was just trying to explain the situation as it has been 
explained to me. I have been told that the wood in Yamaha pianos made for the 
Asian market has not been dried to the extent that it has been dried for the 
American marktet. For this reason, Yamaha Corporation of America does not get 
involved with pianos which the parent company has not made for this market. 
In other businesses, it is not uncommon for companies to limit warranties on 
products.

I will not debate whether or not this is a good policy. However, knowing 
people a lot of people at Yamaha Corp. of America, I believe that it is 
correct to say that they usually do not have specific information about 
models made for other markets.

<<Pianos undergo extreme climatic changes even within the US.>>

I believe that the issue is whether the wood has been dried to a low moisture 
content so that it can withstand the low humidity in our centrally-heated 
houses.

<<They didn't design a completely different disklavier unit for Japan I don't 
believe.>>

I have heard that Disklaviers in other countries may have had different 
feature sets, but that is just a rumor. I don't have any hard evidence one 
way or another.

<<Even if it is
another model #.  I understand that the different language capabilities are a
menu choice even in the US models.>>

This is true. I don't know if the Asian Disklaviers also have a choice of 
language. 

<<I am astounded that they do not support this unit, solely from my 
observation
that it is to protect the US Yamaha dealers from any foriegn competition. This
seems unethical.>>

Support is a costly issue. I am sure that a good argument can be made that 
Yamaha goes a great distance to make and support appropriate models for its 
various world-wide markets. 

<<I sold this unit for a dealer I work with, yes, I feel obligated to get my
customer any info I can about it. If you know how to switch the menu to
english from japanese, that would be a big start. There are many Japanese made
pianos coming into the states. If you have done this for any time, I assume
that you have, you've seen the changes int the american/imported piano mix. 
It's a printed booklet, nothing compicated.  Whay can't they just sell me 
one?>>

I think it is accurate to say that Yamaha Piano Service in the US does not 
have the manual which goes with your model and has not been provided with any 
information to correlate this Asian model with a similar US model.

<<Why to I need to have a piano at all in order to buy a book?  Doesn't this
seem ulikely to you?  Do you have any suggestions beyond the company?    
thanks.  >>

I would presume that the dealers in the market which originally sold the 
instrument would be able to provide manuals. You might try to compare the 
look of the control unit to control units which have been used with 
Disklaviers made for America and see if you can identify one which looks 
similar.

Regards,
PianoBench