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I went to see a Yamaha for sale from a priavate party. The name on the plate is Nippon Gakko. The model is G3. It has only two pedals. The serial number, I believe, is 500953 or 900953. Either way, I couldn't find the number at the Yamaha website. Can anyone please help me...

1. Is this a "grey" Yamaha? How can I tell?
2. How do I find out the age from one of the two numbers above?

Thanks,
Kim

Nippon Gakki is the name of a company, which means Musical Instruments of Japan.

G was the series that Yamaha used before the current C series G1, G2, G3 etc. related to size with G1/C1 being their smallest grand.

So your G3 is an old Yamaha, from the mid 1960's

I think probably grey market.. I don't know where you are though..

Nippon w/2pedal is usually grey market but sometimes people bring them from Asia themselves.. I believe Larry Fine book explains these pianos..

Not bad assuming the price is right and piano is comparable to price.. Everything is relative to cost..

nippon Gakko?

um... japanese lizard

The owner is neither a pianist nor a technician. The ad said it was built in 1984. The serial number is either 900953 or 500953. I can't find it on the Yamaha website. The piano has excellent appearance, but is out of tune; its action is a bit stiff and a key or two are not that responsive. I guess it could be that the piano has not been played for a while. I think it needs some action regulation in addition to tuning, in addition to voicing. Well, the bottom line is the asking price is $7,000. Since I have not shopped anything in such a long time that I have no idea what is a reasonable price for it. My city is about as expensive as north Atlanta suburbs. I'll go to some dealers on the weekend to get a feel for it.

Any opinion is appreciated.

Thanks,
Kim

500000 or 900000 it is still mid late 60's

Pricey in my land

This is only an opinion . You are talking about a piano made by Yamaha almost 40yrs old. We are not talking here about a classic, but an instrument that when new, it was a bit below midrange at the time. I promise you that Yamahas don’t get any better as they get older.
Apparently with some problems. Would you consider paying $7000.00 for a 40yrs old Toyota or Nissan ? In top of that probably with some problems? (maybe not the best analogy because cars deteriorate faster, but you’ll get the point)

Since you are buying from a private party. You have no warranty. Not even a courtesy tuning or deliver, so you are going to carry with those expense, plus whatever potential problems the piano may have.
Again since you are buying from a private party. I’m assuming, you are going to come up with all the cash at front or at least with some portion. Therefore if you have $7000.00 available for your piano. Don’t put your good money into a mediocre or probably bad instrument. Use that as down payment and get something new or not that old from a dealer.

I believe that Nippon Gakki was the name that Yamaha was listed with on the Japanese stock market. I think is was their old corporate name.

I *DO* remember clearly selling thousands of them. They are genuine Yamahas, albeit "grey".