Yamaha C3, C3X, C7M & CFIII comparison

[Otto]

I spent most of yesterday looking round for a decent new(ish) grand (don't ask!) and had a look at the Yamaha offerings to get me going.

I was specifically charged with looking at the 7' - 7'6" sizes, hence the C7. It was a nicely prepared piano but for its size seemed brash, despite the fact that it had already been toned down, and yet didn't project quite as I would have expected. I compare it with an old Bechstein Model IV (1892) I used to own - restored by Peter Newham in 1988 - and it really was obviously in a lesser league. What I found particularly unpleasant was the feel of the black keys. The tops are supposed to be slightly rough to give you a feel , which is fair enough, but the front faces and bevel edges were even rougher, and there's no need for that on a piano costing well over £30k.

I was keen to see what all the noise about the CX was, and the piano shop had a prepared / toned C3 standing next to an out-of-the-box C3X (Model A size). I played the C3 first, and my immediate thought was that the C7 didn't actually buy you very much more in the bass and presence as you might have expected. The C3 is a very able beast in that regard. Moving over to the C3X, the thing that hits you in the eye (or fingers to be more accurate) is the completely different feel of the action. It's so much more European and responsive than the bog standard Japanese feel you get from the C7 and C3, the C7 being noticeably the better.

I think that this is a very significant improvement, and is something that has needed to happen for a very long time, if Yamaha really do want to provide proper competition to the pianos in the first division. The one thing that bothers me is the 'beefing up' of all the bits and pieces elsewhere in the 'X' series. With my engineer's hat on, providing a bigger stressed crown and concomitant support scaffolding in the sound board, seems to be going in the wrong direction - a bit like the German King Tiger Tank with ever thicker armour and ever more powerful guns.

Later in the day I spent a couple of hours with the 5 year old Yamaha CFIII (not a CFIIIs) which was a delightful experience. The response of the action was comparable to the C3X, and the size to a Steinway D. This particular one was built for evenness of sound and volume, which it could deliver in spades, and the sustain of the notes was in every way a match to a Steinway D - as was the clarity in the bass. However the 'grunt' of the Steinway's bass wasn't quite there and the action was still well down in crispness and repeatability - fast trills were so much harder to bring off - ditto repeated notes. Where it fell over for me was the difficulty in controlling the ppp sound - a doddle on my Model D.

Whether the CFIIIs is significantly better I don't know, as I've never tried one. As a pianist, I've yet to find an instrument that seems to be eager to help you along in every respect by being so responsive as the model D.

Any suggestions for other 7' to 7'6" pianos to look at (under £35k) ? (I'm hoping to try the Kawais soon)

[mauilachance]

anyone?

[joseph]

I would try other examples of the same makes - other Yamaha C7s, simply because all pianos are different.
Then you could look at Kawai, Boston, the chinese pianos (Brodmann, Hailun, Feurich - although if you have 35k I probably wouldn't bother), and you may also find some Steinway Bs around that price too, perhaps ones that aren't too old that have been restored, like some of the ones Jeffrey Shackell sells. You might need to persuade the buyer to go over the 35k, but it's a Steinway