Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Yamaha, Essex, or Perzina? Upright or baby grand?

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this community, but have seen lots of great feedback and was hoping for some specific to my situation.

I grew up playing piano on a Yamaha C109, and am now looking for a new piano for a new house. I've been accustomed to the Yamaha brightness, and to my ear it's a crisper and cleaner sound. Having said that, now that I've been looking around and testing lots of pianos side by side, I might find the Yamaha sound TOO bright on the models I've tried.

I was looking for something similar in size to the T118 or T121. I also checked out the Essex EUP-116E. For some reason the idea of Kawai (K2 or K3) doesn't really speak to me. I also saw gently used Yamahas U1 & U3 for a great price.

Then I came across the Perzina. I looked at the GP112 and GP122, which both seemed very interesting. There was also a baby grand (5 feet) which caught my eye. My big issue with Perzina is the lack of information. I've read just about everything I could find about them on this site and others, but it's all pretty unclear. I can't even get a straight answer on which model grand I saw because every site (blue book, piano buyer, etc) all have conflicting information. The store information says G151BB, but most other sites only have 152's. The selling price is $10k, the piano looks beautiful and feels & sounds really nice...but I have no idea if this is a good deal or if for the money I should now be checking out other comparable 5' baby grands.

In a nutshell, these are my questions:

1) What about Perzina pianos? I know what all the websites say, but does anyone have one that they can share feedback on?

2) If I don't have a huge space, is a baby grand going to be too overpowering? Am I better off with an upright?

3) Yamaha, Essex, or Perzina?

I'm not a very technical player, and I'm sure whatever piano I end up buying will feel and sound fine once I stop comparing.

Any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you

We recently bought a Yamaha middle-sized C3X grand. We listened to a few at the showroom and the technician there pointed out a range of voicings. We asked for ours to be voiced like the one that seemed to be in the "middle" for mellow/brightness.

It seemed nice over the first few days, but now we both think it's too bright. The first tune helped, removing some of the ringing from the bi- and tri-chords. It's still too bright however and I fear we've bought a piano that's too big or maybe too bright for the room.

The room is 15' x 10' x 8', by the way.

I will be putting some sound absorbing on the ceiling as I'm pretty sure the room has significant echo/reverb. And after the next tune, I'll probably consider getting its voicing changed a bit.

I'll let you know how it goes; although it might be a few months before I know.

I'm suffering some left-ear tinnitus and that might prompt me to speed things up though. I wish I could be sure as to whether the tinnitus has been there but unnoticed for a while (it's not severe thank heavens) or whether the loud piano has brought it on. I am slowly learning to play more softly having transitioned from a small upright.

Howdy!



Not necessarily. If a grand will fit in the room, that would be my choice. I don't think they are louder than an upright. A grand can be played quietly, some small uprights can be very loud.



I purchased an Essex EUP-111 for my girlfriend. It's a good piano, not an outstanding piano, but a good one. Nice tone in the bass, actually. A bit loud but there's lots of hard surfaces around it. It holds a tuning very well. A cousin who has an old spinet played it and she thinks it's just a marvelous piano.

Well, the sound-absorbing celing tiles are up. I just bought a box of eight 1200x600x30 mm tiles and spaced them across the ceiling. The don't look at all bad. They're a white facing on some kind of spun yellow material, with bevelled edges.

There seems to be a significant reduction in reverberation. I'm quite pleased. I'm still thinking I'll try and get the piano voiced towards mellower in a few months once it's settled a bit more though.

Next (will there be no end?) it's some baffles for the bottom heads of the drum kit! The top heads already have practice pads. I reckon the tiles must have worked as I can now hear the drums resonating whilst playing the piano! - fair enough I guess - the bottom heads are known as the resonant heads.

Perzina 151 is the old model, the new is GBT 152.