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

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 . 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:

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. 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

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

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

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,