Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Are all Young Chang pianos like this one?

I serviced my first Young Chang piano today. Our local music store never carried that brand so after five years of tuning, this is the first one that I have encountered. The lady had purchased the piano in Minnesota years ago. The model number is U-1074 and according to Pierce Piano Atlas was made around 1991.

It looked to be a console size. Nice high gloss case, looked almost brand new. However when I began tuning it a large majority of the pins were very jumpy. It was a NIGHTMARE to tune. Probably the worst I've encountered thus far. The places were they were the worst were at the bottom of the treble break and the very top. The ones at the top were the hardest to set, it would get it just about to where I wanted it and the pin would release and go sharp and then do the same thing on the other direction. The torque was low on a few. The bass however was fine, no jumping pins at all.

In my mind I had labeled the piano a piece of junk. When I FINALLY finished, I ran some chords and was amazed at the sound. This console piano has an amazing tone especially in the bass, better than some of the higher quality grand piano I work on.

Has anyone else had this experience?

I have never had an issue with tuning Young Change uprights from that era. For their size, the consoles actually sound very nice. The grands from that era are my nightmare! LOL

I'm with Eric regarding the grands. I have a 1989 7-footer I tune regularly. Popping, jumpy pins. Blech.

the pinning was too jumpy and tight on them in thoses years.

the tuners nudge and jerk the pins a lot so to ease them

the soundboard are wood. hammers Royal George felt, but sound as wood too !

once prepped they are decent pianos.

Inharmonicity at the bass break was a major tuning challenge (aural) with the smaller YC grands.

I have three YC grands here at the conservatory (two G-175's and one G-185). They are all very jumpy just above the treble break, but the same goes for some other grands, too, for example our Bosendorfer 200's (which made me break quite a few strings before I adjusted my tuning technique for these particular pianos).

This time a year, when moisture has stiffened the pinblock during the summer, you would almost need workout sessions in the gym in order to cope with the physical effort needed in tuning them.

The YC grands have been used as secondary instruments here, and have thus been kind of neglected through the years. On my to-do list is to give them quite a lot attention this year, just to see what could be squeezed out of them

Regulation voicing and they are way better, yet not singing but controllable.

No first voicing was done, probably.

Maybe this is part of the explanation. Who knows what happened to that poor pinblock during Minnesota winters and on the move down to MO.

I have only tuned a few YCs in my area but have not had this problem.

It's not uncommon to happen onto a Young Chang full size upright that has a great sound.

I had issues with a YC console that sounded like the one you ran into, Ryan. In the end the company replaced the piano. YC was a bit evasive, but I suspect that there was something that they used for a short time to ease the job of driving the pinblock screws.

I occassionally have a piano that kicks me in the ass. I trudge on though, and too am surprised I ended up with as good a result!