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always wanted to have YAMAHA

Yes, rugs and furniture to break up the parallel, perpendicular, and hard surfaces is necessary. Particularly if a tile floor is involved. I have an even larger piano in a smaller home and the open living room/dining room/kitchen where it’s located has a laminate floor. And a 9 x 12 foot rug. And a couple of couches.

So here is an update.

The C5 offer is as followed: 13k + my young chang as a trade in (PG150)

I think that's a fair deal, if they prep the piano correctly.

Any word of wisdom?

DO NOT buy a piano until you are well-satisfied with its touch and tone. Once they have the money, you have lost all your power in the transaction. They need to prove that they have the ability to "dial it in". I have always been disappointed with my selection in pianos when price/the deal was the primary reason I picked it.

Thats my plan. I want to buy after its to my liking/fixed

As much as I like the C6 I find it hard to justify the price difference for someone who plays an hour a day / Sunday player

Let me add a question for you.

On that particular C5, I was surprised at the white keys. The surface appeared not uniformly white but with some striation, very faint but looked like white and ivory color thin lines.
Is this a thing with Yamaha pianos?

Thank you

Yes. I think their trade name for it is Ivorite.

I do love Yamaha’s Ivorite. It’s surface has the slightest bit of grip so my fingers never slip. It’s a similar material used in pool cues.

You guys know everything .
Ok so there is a mystery
The C6 has regular smooth white keys
The C5 has ivorite
But the C6 has a more recent production number.
Makes me think the C6 original key tops were replaced ?

Probably not- the older piano would be more suspect. The material may have evolved in its composition over time (I find Yamaha’s fake ivory to be pretty subtle). If memory serves there was a time in the 1980s where there may have been a bad run of keyboards and they replaced a lot of them (a huge expense) in some sort of service program. Or the refurbisher might have done something pretty aggressive to rejuvenate the keys that left it with this texture.

Here is why I ask the question,

They have similar serial: C5 is 599XXX C6 is 601XXX, I don't get why the C6 does not have the ivorite, unless Yamaha offered it as an customization option

I really wouldn't worry about it, unless it bothers you. Keytop material is something that is a novelty when I first play a piano, and then completely forget about afterward.

I suspect it's just a different variety of ivorite? They seem to have changed it slightly at some point.

I mean.. one in plain shiny white like any piano, the other is textured with thin lines...
Also I realize that I ve seen a few Cs by now and never saw one with the ivorite I saw on the C5, Ill try to snap a pic if I go back

New Ivorite is smoother, the older Ivorite is a bit more textured. The older Ivorite actually feels more like ivory as it ages, it's a rougher feeling, less slick, if you know what I mean. I played a really beautiful C7 the other day, I didn't check the serial number on it, but I thought at first that the keys were ivory and that it must have been quite an old piano, but no, it was definitely Ivorite given the sticker claiming so on the right hand side of the keyboard slip rail.

These days, it's been a while since a new piano was produced with ivory keys, except for a few notable examples: Steinway would do it by special order until about 2007, as would some other European makes. Bechstein made a piano with an ivory keyboard in about 2013 or 2014 which caused a bit of a furore...

My point is though that as people get further away from the time of ivory keys, it's less important to make the keys feel like ivory and more important just to make them feel good.

My DYUS5 has Ivorite keys. I like the feel of them. I love my piano and I am so happy I was able to upgrade to it when Yamaha couldn’t deliver the DYUS1 in time.

I’m not so concerned about the look,
I’m concerned after reading horror stories about ivorite changing color, getting dirty and impossible to clean, but I understand that it was a pre 2000 thing.
Also concerned if some key tops have been replaced could also mean a piano has really been “reconditioned “ since I now realize there are a lot of those on the market.
Thanks all!

It was the early Ivorite from the 80s that had problems. The Ivorite from the 90s onwards has no problem, and if a piano from that period has discoloured Ivorite it's probably because it needs a good clean, a buffing, or it hasn't been cared for in some other way.

All pianos can develop key top issues. If the piano has been played a lot the keytops can become a bit pitted, and you might not notice it by feel other than the pitted area is a bit rough and discoloured. This can happen on ivory as well - Vladimir Ashkenazy apparently wore through the ivory on his Steinway and when he sent it for repairs (or traded it in, he might have bought a new one at the time) after about 20 or 25 years it needed a new keyboard. Of course that's an extreme case, but concert pianists pianos often end up in those situations, especially if they have a favourite practice piano... it wasn't just Gould and his Chickering! Needless to say I don't write that as a reflection on the quality of Steinway's product, but just to illustrate that these things happen.

A piano being reconditioned shouldn't be an issue if the work was done well. Very few pianos out in the concert circuit are fully original unless they're about 5 years old or less. After that stage you'll start to see top sections restrung, whippen assemblies replaced, hammers replaced, and the concert technicians don't call that rebuilding or reconditioning, they call that 'servicing' or 'repairing'

My former piano, a C3 from 1991, had no issues with the ivorite. It was great.

Thank you all, that is reassuring.