Yamaha

Not every company can boast being around over a 100 years in the music industry as well as being exceptionally dominant in vastly different areas.

Enter Yamaha

If you haven’t heard of Yamaha… we’ll then… no… everyone has heard of them. It’s impossible not to have.

There are a few things that irk me about the company. Their need to market their products by sponsoring top players to use them. And their massive hold on the market by expanding to sell almost anything and everything. However it is not my place to take this into consideration. What holds important is the performance of the musical products.

In many ways a company can be appraised based on the guarantee it offers. The guarantee is the stand the company makes, saying “my product will not fail you for this long.” So the interesting aspect on Yamaha since it has so much to offer, is that it’s products have various different guarantees. Some products have only 1 year.  A few others sport a 5 year guarantee, and then there are some products which offer a 1 year and 4 year for parts without labor costs. So it varies, but it can least tell you what sort of quality to expect. You can find their various guarantees in here (LINK TO Yamaha-Guarantee.pdf), but be warned, it’s a bit ambiguous.

I’m sure many people have at one stage or another owned Yamaha products since there are so many. And so here is my experience with them..

My first problem with a Yamaha a product was the purchase of an old Clavinova electric piano. The piano was thirteen years old, and was used for teaching. It certainly had a lot of play out of it. It was within my budget, had a great touch and I was provided with a 3 month guarantee since it was from the actual dealership.

We’ll the first problem it had, as soon as I got it was the middle C note was not activating when pressed sensitively. You had to press it harder than the other keys. The next issue it had was minor, but got worse over a short time was that it was jumping to the “Piano 1″ instrument, even if you selected another one.

So I contacted the dealer I bought it from, and was given authorization to have the local Yamaha Repairman come over to look at it.
All the problems were quickly picked up. The middle C problem was as a result of a worn rubber piece that extends under the hammers of the keyboard. The jumping instrument was as a result of the micro-switch for the Piano 1 being faulty.
Both needed replacing.
Now bear in mind this was a discontinued and quite an old model. However the parts were readily available, were ordered and by the weeks end everything was as good as old! The repair charge went to the dealer. That keyboard stayed strong until I myself sold it a few years later, upgrading to the Yamaha Motif ES8.

In summary:

Yamaha is a power house company with reliable products, very competent service, and product costs that whilst may not be cheap, are not expensive. You do get your moneys worth. Unfortunately the only thing that keeps them from getting top mark is that somehow, most of their products don’t quite manage to stand out at the price range, making them a prime candidate to give you thought to compare other products. And don’t be fooled into thinking they clear the bar of exceptionalism because big names use them. This is simply marketing. Big names are paid to use them. However if you do prefer the sound of the Yamaha after comparing and some of the time you will, then you can feel safe purchasing a product that should serve you well.

Sonic Brilliance Rating: * * * *