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Hi. A dealer is selling a 1995 S6 for AU$37,000. Is this a good price? The piano is in very good condition.

My partner and I may be travelling to Japan in a few months so thought of looking there.

Does anyone have any links to Japanese dealers so I can compare pricing on S6 and S4.

Thanks

Andre

Worth considering. What else can you buy for 35,000 AUD from your local, national and international sources?

the Yamaha S series for me has totally no sense.
Yamaha pianos, priced only a few less than a steinway and absolutely incomparable to that.

A friend o'mine just purchased a brand new S4 for 31.000 euros.
At the same price lots of rebuilt steinway with totally original steinway parts.
Also I found his S4 very good, but not 11.000 euros more good than my C3X...

A lot of people believe the Yahama S series to be equal to Steinway. They are crafted to a similar standard. They don't cut any corners compared to Steinway. Whether you like them is a personal preference, but they are certainly of the same quality level.

I found the yamaha S6 to be a fantastic piano in terms of quality and action but I don't like the sound enough to love it.
I felt the action to be a step up from a regular C6 and still offer a rich tonal palette. I found it better built than a NY S&S by miles.

I've known of Yamaha S6 pianos to sell for between £15,000 and £22,000 second hand at around that age, but of course I have no idea what the market is like in Australia, and what else is available at that price. I would expect that from a dealer you'd be looking at the higher end of the spectrum.

The S6 is a pretty reliable model. Every one I have played has been excellent, and some of them have been absolutely beautiful. How much of that is to do with preparation and how much of it is more inherent in the individual piano I don't know. It sounds like the price is about right if the piano is in good condition.

Thanks all. Does anyone know how much the S4 and S6 retail for in Japan? Are there stores that sell used pianos?

Andrew

4.9 Million yen for the S6 at the Yamaha store in Ginza...

$42k USD for a gray market S. ;-)

A good S is easily in the same league as a NY Steinway B IMHO. But I'd not pay $100k retail new for either. (PianoBuyer indicates the 7 ft Yamaha S is about $80k USD new.)

I am a Yamaha fan but I really don't see all the fuss people make about S6's. To me, Steinway is much better. I feel a bit manic seeing all the praise for this model. Perhaps I am indeed crazy.

As far as I am aware, the S6 models don't have the innovations of the CX-Bosendorffer acquisition? With the kind of money you possess, I would definitely consider other brands/ different Yamaha models.

I believe I was quoted 65k to 67k in Canadian dollars for the 2 S6 in our local store. Both were between 6-8 years old and have never been sold.

In terms of sound and touch, I didn't find it to be that significantly better than the C6 that I tried. The touch was a little bit better, but sound was very similar, slightly metallic in the higher register and not really to my taste.

Well I had a chance to play the S6 for all of 10 minutes at Giza; not sure how much I could glean from that, but nothing really jumped out at me.

Now after about 30 seconds playing the Bosendorfer, I literally had chills, it sounded that good. I can only imagine what it would sound like in the hands of a polished musician.

Fwiw I sold my S6 (purchased new in '97) for $29,000 in August of 2006 , to a private party out of of state. He covered the moving and insurance costs.

I'll say it was a very good piano, but not great. In hindsight, I should've hung on to my '85 Yamaha C7E. I don't think there was that much of a difference, tonally, between the two now that I can look back. I traded the C7 in on the S6 in '97.

With the S6, I still had to constantly stay on top of the voicing or it could go "yamaha" on me - too bright ! To be fair, I was practicing a lot, and it had many hours on it. But I also had a squeaking problem in the keybed, and one issue were they had to replace a leg, because it was a source for another squeaking area. Really bizarre. Yamaha was very good about it though. They sent their top techs to troubleshoot it and take care of the problems.

But after I sold it and had the Steinway , my wife , who very used to hearing me practice made a comment after about 2 months in of - you know there's something really different about that new piano. Even though it's bigger, it doesn't seem as loud and grating as that other one.