Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Advice on ~1996 Yamaha U3

Hello,

I am new here and new to music and pianos in general. I have been playing for about three months to this point. I have been in the market for an acoustic piano and found one for what seems like a great price ($3k). I have a few details about the instrument and would like some advice due to concerns I have about it.

The family are original owners and bought it new in 1996. It is an 'H' Model. The piano was only used for their daughter, who left for college about 10 years ago and it hasn't been played since. All the keys play and respond back after being pressed. All three pedals respond as well. It is out of tune, but not a surprise for sure.

My concerns are:

-Has only been tuned twice in it's life ('96 and '02)
-No humidity control for it (60-80% relative humidity here) at any point
-Brass elements are very corroded (should be simple enough polish repair?)
-Some of the lacquer is damaged, but looks just cosmetic (repairable?)

So my question is, what is the chances of damage to the soundboard or cabinet from the lack of humidity control? I am happy to buy it but I don't want to pay $3k and end up with $3k of repairs. Please let me know your thoughts and advice.

Thank you

The only correct response is “Hire a technician to look at the piano and tell you their thoughts,” but that’s no fun to read here.

Others will weigh in their opinions in a moment, I’m sure.

Haha, yes I know that is the ideal option. It is hard to find technicians here (Hawaii) with flexible hours and the owner has said they had many interested parties, so i feel on a time crunch. I am trying to arrange a technician if I can make it in time. Thank you.

‘many interested parties’ may or may not be true. I hope you don’t let that statement rush into either a decision or a sales price.

25 years in 60-80% humidity. Yes you need a technician to check the piano out.

If it is a U3H, then it's not a 1996 instrument! U3Hs are 1970s instruments - many original Japanese market instruments have been refurbished and shipped around the world to retail.

I'd definitely want a technician to look over it, especially if it hasn't been regularly tuned since 1996.

Yes, do get a technician to check, but if the piano has been kept at 60-80% humidity for 25 years and is in decent condition that is not a problem at all providing that is the same humidity you are going to keep it in yourself. Personally I'd consider getting a piano room dehumidifier and setting that to somewhere just a bit below the midpoint of that humidity range so that you get better stability by minimising the swings but don't stress the soundboard by radically changing the humidity from what it has become accustomed to.

Check its serial number to date it. Mine is a U3H made in 1976 and serial number begin with 228xxxx

Thank you all for the responses. I was hesitant and thankfully with your advice I did not commit. Luck had it that another U3 came on the market from '91/92 yesterday. It's condition was much, much better and it has been maintained by the original owner for that time with climate control, a dehumidifier, and twice yearly tuning. They were only selling it as they were moving to London from Hawaii and the risk/cost to move it that far was not worth it to them.

Pictures of the one I found yesterday are:
External
Internal 1
Internal 2

Huh, I thought U3's had a sostenuto pedal, but I guess perhaps that came much later than 91/92. I learned something today!

Great looking instrument! I just wish photos could let us hear it and feel how it plays.

This one looks pristine !!!

Agreed.

Thank you everyone, just got the piano yesterday and moved in nicely. I will start a new thread as I have some questions specific to the instrument I ended up buying.

Just read this thread, small world, I played both U3's you looked at. Had similar reservations to the first U3 regarding rust and the tech i talked to dated it as a U3H from 1978/grey market (not particularly a problem because i actually thought it sounded great).

The second U3 was in better condition in terms of rust, though it was out of tune so difficult to get a handle on the sound. I'm sure it will sound great once it's tuned. Also look into putting some teflon powder on the damper pedal. Small issue but squeaks drive me nuts