Yamaha has had a high end “craft built” line for a number of years and has been a very serious builder of concert pianos for decades. The concert grand, the CFIII (CF3) has undergone a number of iterations and experiments, resulting in the model CFIIIS that has been the flagship for the last 8 years or so.

This year Yamaha is unveiling, both at NAMM and at the Frankfurt show,  the newest version called the CFX (X, not 10) and 2 smaller models with the same construction techniques, the CF4 and CF6. While there was a lot for Yamaha to talk about at NAMM this year, they did focus a lot of attention on these new pianos, hosting a press conference at which Mitsuru Umemura, the President of Yamaha Corporation global spoke and pianist Frederic Chiu performed. The performance (short but effective) was repeated at the Yamaha Dealers breakfast on Friday.

NAMM, oddly enough, is not the place to evaluate pianos and the huge, diverse Yamaha display makes it essentially impossible. Besides, talking about piano sound is a sure fire way to drive pretty girls from the room and make enemies. That being said, I will make a couple of observations.

Yamaha makes a really really good concert piano. They are very serious builders and use some hand techniques that they don’t even use at Bosendorfer (hand chiseling the rib tails).  They are looking for what I call a “high rim tension” sound, with power and overtones. But they also look for a lyrical sweetness and sustain and are very comfortable trading some raw power and noise for these characteristics. This combination makes the end result very pleasing and flexible as long as your standard of comparison is not the typical rip-your-face-off, noise-is-good standard that many competition participants seem to prefer these days.

Knowing that NAMM was not the place to evaluate pianos,  I was, as expected,  unimpressed with the sound at the press conference. It was  very nice but no special characteristics could be heard in that environment. The next day the piano was moved to a different room and set on a 4 foot high stage for the Dealers Breakfast. Frederic played the same repertoire (Chopin and his own Prokofiev transcription) but the effect, at least on me, was quite different. I was also sitting in the first row which helped. Here the characteristics and color really came out more and I was very impressed. This is not some Steinway wanna-be, thank god. This is a concert piano with a real personality and range of colors.

The smaller sizes seem to share the tonal characteristics. One interesting construction feature is that the 2 smaller pianos have “open window” pinblocks where the top surface of the pinblock is exposed, rather than hidden below the plate. The concert grand does not have this feature. The concert grand on the other hand exhibits holes drilled in the bass bridge which is a characteristic of high end european concert pianos but has not, at least in my memory, appeared on Yamaha pianos before.

No single detail makes a piano but there is really something important here. How it is accepted remains to be seen but I take my hat off to Yamaha for pursuing an alternative concert piano with such determination.

Yamaha has offered 2 smaller sizes of crafted pianos, called the S4 and S6 (6′3″ and 6′11″ respectively). One of the complaints about the marketing of these pianos is that they look exactly like the regular line Yamaha pianos. It is thought that potential customers were turned off on spending $20,000 to $30,000 more on a piano that looks exactly like a neighbors much cheaper instrument. Kawai addressed this by giving their upper end a different name, a sort of Toyota/Lexus approach. Yamaha addressed these issues with some very interesting case details, including a unique pointed arm and unusual pedal lyre.

Click on any of these photos to see it larger.

The other interesting fact is that one would logically assume that the CF4 and CF6 would replace the S4 and S6  but no, Yamaha Japan feels compelled to offer all 4 models. Yamaha Corporation of America has elected to import only the 2 new CF models leaving the S series to the rest of the world. Good decision, I think. The S series are very nice but having 2 separate lines is much too confusing to the market.

I’m a huge fan of the festival, having first gone in 1980. It’s the classical music festival, held inside the mansions in Newport RI. It is a treasure of the music world due to it’s wonderful, unique programming and the supremely high level of the playing and players. Of course, it’s mostly due to Dr. Dr. Dr. Mark Malkovich, who has run it for something like 30 years.

www.newportmusic.org

.

Newport Venue

This year it takes place from July 10-26 and if you can possibly go, you should.

Here is a list of the pianists performing this year:

Read More

In a nutshell, the S series are Yamaha’s concert level, hand made pianos. Made in a separate factory, these 3 models, the S4 (191 cn, 6′3″)  , S6 (212m, 6′11″) and CFIIIS  (275cm, 9′) (pronounced C F three S)  are made using techniques that would be familiar in any high end piano factory. Lots of hand chisels, a relaxed but intense pace working with materials that are chosen with less regard to the price.

The result is a piano with much more character, range and overall playing quality with the distinctive sound Yamaha strives for in their concert instruments.

I should have known better, but I got screwed by a piano rebuilder in Yonkers. He came recommended by a friend who should know.

F-uped bridge notching

Originally I just needed my piano restrung, a pretty straight ahead job if you’re a restringer so made sense to have it done. Long story short, the piano ended up in his shop to have bridge capped because the bearing needed resetting. No problem here, I agreed with everything. But this is also where he screwed me by doing to most bulls**t job of bridge notching I have ever seen.The problem is that once a bridge is notched, there is not much room to do it over.

So, the piano is with my friends at PianoWorks in Atlanta, having the bridge recapped and the whole thing restrung. Crap, maybe at the end of this I’ll finally have a real piano to send to my new pad in Charleston.

I’m in Charleston SC right now (really great city!) and just heard Valentina Lisitsa play the Tchaikovsky 1 with the Warsaw Philharmonic. Valentina is a big Bosendorfer fan, and the feeling is mutual. But our bank of concert pianos can’t completely keep up with the vast range of her performances, and we don’t have a piano near Charleston.

So, imagine my surprise to see a shiny Yamaha CFIIIS on the stage. I’m rather partial to the CFIIIS, having managed the Yamaha US Artist Relations program for 10 years. Oh, and I also own one. I believe that the world needs more than one concert piano and Yamaha has worked very very hard to give the world one, with the resources to put it out where people can see (hear) it. You could call the world of concert pianos a zero sum game (any win for one is a loss for the others).  However, when faced with a monopoly, the game is somewhat different. If any instrument can fight it’s way onto the concert stage in a consistent and satisfying manner, then that instrument is good for all the ones fighting the same fight. The monopoly’s domain is slightly smaller and someone else has planted a stake.

This particular Yamaha was extremely satisfying. Plenty of power (remember, it’s Tchaik 1) with extraordinary tone and sustain in the soft lyrical parts. Yet, still with a sound of its own. Really nice piano…oh, and played by somebody pretty extraordinary herself!!

I’ve developed good concert prep kind of skills; regulation, voicing, finding and fixing noise, working under time pressure etc. What I am NOT is a rebuilder. I’ve voiced new hammers from scratch alot, but I really haven’t had much experience installing new hammers. However, considering how many people do it, how hard can it be?

So, about 3 years ago I decided to replace the original overvoiced stock Yamaha CFIII hammers with a new set. First decision, replace with what? Since I wisely figured that my first hanging job would not be my best, I bought a set from Wally Brooks…the make of which I really can’t remember (deep red underfelt). I know that is herasy to hammer buffs (what??!!! I suppose you don’t remember your MOM’s name either!!). I had Wally drill them and I hung on the original shanks.

Well, let’s just say my hammer hanging was pretty dismal. They sound pretty good, but the job is cosmetically challenged.  I’ve done a couple sets since then and my skills have gotten much much better, but that first set was an experience. Not as easy as it looks. I took one of Richard Davenports classes some time ago and he made it clear that to do a professional hammer hanging job takes alot of time, equipment and skill.

Being a piano guy, I have a rather unusual one. A Yamaha CFIIIS 51GX, picked up under special circumstances (completely above board) during the early part of my time at Yamaha.

The GX series are experimental and the short lived 51 share a number of very specific technical traits of another company & Sons. It was not the nicest of the ones I had to select from, but these technical features hooked me for the sake of novelty. The problem is that when you own a concert grand and one is a piano technician, ones piano should be in good condition, which has lead to all kinds of frustration and anguish.

I’ll go into that later, but I have begun the process of trying to get it into some kind of concert level shape, starting with basic key work. This should go into the Please God, Get A Life category, since this was my Friday night!