Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Yamaha U3A, UX3, U30A, U30BL, Kawai US50, US55

I've got a choice amongst these pianos currently. If you were to choose solely on specs alone and/or experience listening and playing one how would you narrow it down to which one is best. They are all early to late 80's models. I realize there could be variation amongst them such that one might be uniquely in better condition etc. but if one could speak somewhat generically...

For example from my reading it appears that the UX3 excels over the other Yamaha models listed. True? Does the Kawai better it/them? Any have sostenuto? Action potential for fast playing. stability, durability, sound quality.

Considering a long distance purchase; I would acquire the services of a tech but wanted to get some comments here also if possible.

Thanks.

I just got a 1991 Yamaha U30A for $5500 and I really like it. The sound is pure, clear, and strong. The tuner said it was a real find.

Hi, nofinger. I suspect the answer you'll get once the smart people get here is that for pianos of this age, condition means more than specs.

Any other comments. I appreciate any words of wisdom. From what I have gathered reading one would have to get a 6 foot or better grand to beat the sound out of an upright of this caliber, correct? Action would be negligible between an upright and grand since it can be adjusted?

Thanks

Can anyone shed some more light on the differences between the Yamaha models mentioned here? Meaning, what's "A", "BL", "30", and "X"? These are older gray market models so I haven't had good luck finding specs. Also, after 20 or 30 years... should they more or less be treated as equals pending a review of the condition?

If you do a search in the Piano forum archives,you will see I have assessed every gray market mdl. piano that you have listed in depth so... I would start there and than focus on any specific questions.

Thanks.

This is not what you want to hear, but I'll say it and you can ignore it. This is not a situation to go on specs and definitely not the situation to buy sight unseen.

These pianos are all grey-market faves. The better the original specs and the higher the series, the greater the chance they were owned by a serious pianist and have had quite a bit of use. Worse yet, they may have come from an institutional situation. There are probably some decent ones among them, but it's entirely possible that the ones with the humblest specs are the best pianos at this point. If you want to go grey-market, you need to play them, choose one you like, and get it thoroughly inspected.

The better the specs the more likely it has been used more... interesting!

Btw, pianobroker, I found your past posts. Thanks.

Hi Pianobroker....I would love to read that post...if I can find it I have a choice between a UX3 1986 and a UX30BL 1988 for the same price. Please advise as I'm totally confused. Also the UX3 has the serial number on a small brass tag embedded on the inside of the top,(this is in addition to the gigantic serial number): where as the UX30BL does not have this brass tag (does this mean anything??) The dealer said that the ones without the small brass tag was an export model....is that true?

I don't know where you are but a preowned gray market Yamaha piano is an export everywhere except in Japan. Interesting!That brass plate on the inside of the lid is usually on all gray market Yamaha pianos. I could see someone removing it if one wanted to represent a piano as being newer. The LARGER serial number script is DEFINITELY signs of fraudulent activity. Actually I don't think I have actually owned a UX3 as new as you allege(1986). I take that back. The difference in the newer UX3 and the original UX was the front panel but both still with the flip down music rack. I've had mostly the YUX,YUA,UX30BL,UX50BL,UX5,UX300 etc. The actual strung backs should be close to the same IF the two vintages are accurate as for the UX30BL and the newer UX3. Now the action design on some of these are of the double escape Yamaha proprietory design which I can't remember are in what mdls.aside from the Yamaha YUA and the YUX.

I'm willing to bet that the UX3 is an older piano. They switched the brass plate and rescripted the serial #. The original UX and the UX3 had a 45 degree angle as for the arms different than a typical U3 case design. Are we more confused or what? I know I am.

Man, this fradulent activity with these gray market pianos is getting out of hand. Maybe the attorney general should make a public announcement.
Pics would tell the tale,at least for me!

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/PastPerfectPiano002.jpg

Appreciate your prompt reply....I'm from Australia. I've re-clarified the year of mfg with the dealer....and he showed me a set of numbers on the horizontal bar where the first two numbers indicate the year of manufacture. The UX3 is a 1982 model (cant remember the SN) and the UX30BL is a 1988 model (SN 004615970). Regarding the brass plate on the top lid, he had three pianos in his shop without them. One was the UX30BL (which I am leaning towards) and the other two were U1 models. He had 6 pianos (UX3, UX50BL and U1) all with the brass tags. I asked him how come some pianos have them and some dont and the owner who is an old man....(30 years as a piano tuner) said that the technicians in Japan told him that these pianos without the brass tag were made in Japan for the overseas market so they did not tag them. The pianos with the brass tag were made for the Japanese market. My previous post was a bit confusing with regard to the LARGER serial number. I must clarify that this number was not on the top lid but inside the piano.
So in general......do you think that the UX30BL is a better piano than the UX3? or are they approximately the same?

Technically the tone of the UX3 in my opinion is a bit richer than the UX30BL though the tradeoff is the age factor of these pianos. The UX30BL is much newer and usually in much better condition internally and cosmetically. I seen many older UX3s that were a bit too crusty for me as for resale and overall condition wise so...one has to assess each and every preowned piano. The boston type fallboard and the big music rack is a nice upgrade in the upper end artist Yamaha uprts.

That actually makes sense as for the brass plate or no plate discrepancy in that 100% of the Yamaha gray market pianos in the USA come from Japan in the preowned market.

As for the larger script serial #, I was actually refering to the script on the guilded harp itself not the lid.

Thanks mate, for the useful advise.Guess what.....whilst I was busy at work, the wife bought the UX30BL over the phone for US$6480...LOL. Thats a relief coz if something goes wrong ....it definitely wont be my fault. It should be arriving in 8-10days. The shop owner told her that all the UX3s and other pianos were sold and there was a guy interested in the UX30BL too, so she decided to make a decision and buy it.(Gee..............thats like 6 pianos sold by the guy in 10days...whats going on??? Billy Joel must be on his way here...LOL). Anyway...I'll post some pictures in a fortnight as soon as it is set up at my place.

Just curious did you look at new pianos and prices, too? Maybe other brands?

yep.....we did at various dealers for Yamaha, Kawai and heaps more. There were some around the same $$ value (eg T121) but the other 131cm new ones were all more dearer than the old pianos.

Guys,
I've finally got the UX30BL....check out the attached pictures.

Fantastic blank pictures or is it me?

can someone please explain how to upload some pics here? I tried the edit function before but the pics did not load successfully :(

Hi, I intend to purchase UX30BL, it come with disklaviers.. selling at US$5000, worth buy? the disklaviers is using Floppy disk (The disklaviers are working well as tested) some expert here please advise??