Back in 2018, I chronicled my purchase of a 1972 Yamaha G2 baby grand, and for the last six years that piano has served me well. While I do play classical and jazz music written by well-known composers, my specialty is making up new songs on the fly––improvised composition, if you may––and I have made at least around 200-300 of those songs on this piano.
Unfortunately, my G2 got seriously damaged in the last few weeks as a result of a moving crew mishap. Even though the piano is still playable and there wasn’t a noticeable change in the sound, because the inner wood of the piano was exposed on both sides the estimate to fix it was quite expensive: around $3,300 including the cost to ship it back and forth to the repair shop. I was at least able to settle with the moving company to get roughly half of the repair cost as compensation. I’m not going to mention the moving company’s name since they at least negotiated with me to a (semi) satisfactory result, but I will say that I don’t recommend ever having non-piano moving specialists try to move a piano, and always be aware of what sort of insurance applies to your stuff.
Anyway, after talking to the folks at Classic Pianos of Portland, I discovered that if I did a trade-in of my piano for a newer one of higher cost, my overall loss (compared to trading in the same piano undamaged) would be roughly $1,700, around half of the cost of fixing the piano. As I really like my G2 I didn’t want to get rid of it, but there was no saying what would happen if I left in an unrepaired state where the inner wood was exposed. It’s possible that temperature changes would cause more damage, and maybe even eventually affect the playability of the instrument. And just playing a damaged instrument somehow makes me a little uncomfortable.
So I tentatively decided on doing a trade-in, but as you can imagine for a picky guy like me finding the right piano is a lot of work. While I did check out another store (and briefly considered buying a used 1936 Steinway, for which you can see an interesting thread about here), due to their great customer service, knowledge, and selection, I ended up going with Classic Pianos for my piano trade-in.
From the start I knew I wanted to buy another Yamaha, not just because I am a fan of Japanese stuff, but just because I liked my G2 so much and got a lot of quality time with it without any major issues. I considered going for an upright, but both the sound and the feel of the keys were so different than a baby grand that I couldn’t force myself to seriously consider any of them. I even tried a Bösendorfer upright that was around $30k, but it still felt like an upright. (But for the record, if I can ever afford a Bösendorfer grand piano I will definitely consider buying one.)
I tried a few other non-Yamahas, but while there were some great pianos, overall nothing in my price range (or even slightly higher) in the non-Yamahas stood out as a contender. So I knew I probably wanted a (baby) grand Yamaha, and due to my budget––I was originally aiming for $10,000––I knew it had to be a used Yamaha, which I was fine with since I knew Classic Pianos has a high standard of quality for used pianos.
Taking into account my requirements and their stock, this left only a handful of models: (you can see their latest line of used Yamahas here, some of the below may still be available)
- Yamaha C5 (6’7”) 1980
- Yamaha BG1K (5’0”) 2023 [I think there were 2-3 models similar to this]
- Yamaha G5 (6’5”) 1978
- Yamaha GP1 (5’3”) 1998
Initially I had narrowed it down to the G5 and the GP1. The GP1 felt very light, and especially the upper register felt beautifully pure and bell-like. And at around $10k (where roughly half would be paid by the trade-in) it was perfect for my budget. However the more I played it, the more I felt like there was something lacking. Not only was the touch too light across the board, but I started to notice there was a certain harshness to the tone, something like a square-wave. I should mention it took playing this piano on two separate occasions to realize this.
On the other hand, the G5 felt more solid across the board, and in particular the lower register was sonorous and powerful. The problem was that it was a bit out of the range I was expecting to pay ($15,900), not to mention that the price seemed somewhat high given the search I had performed online.
But my doubts about the price disappeared when I learned that there had been a significant overhaul of the piano, including new hammers and bass strings (that were said to be very high quality, though not Yamaha-made). That helped to explain why the lower end of the piano sounded wonderful, though the size was also a factor. Most of the other pianos in my price range were under 6 feet, and the G5 was 6’5”. There is a gray area in terms of what a “baby grand” vs. a “grand” is, but to me 6’5” is squarely in the “grand” category. In fact, the G5 is the bigger version of my G2 piano, except it was about 6 years newer. This was probably one reason I was so comfortable with it.
Eventually I stumbled across the C5, which I had been ignoring since it had a “reserved” label, but after checking with the salesman I was told the piano was still up for sale (not to be confused with “sold” which is what pianos say that are actually sold). The C-series is the next series up from the G-series, apparently designed for conservatories, though it seems that the differences depend on the year in question, and I am not sure all of those details have been made public (you can see some information about it here though). Regardless, despite both being mid-level Yamaha grands of a similar time period (the C5 was 1980, only 2 years later than the G5), the same price, and almost the same size, these two pianos felt totally different.
The C5 had a soft touch, with what you could call a complex, dark tone. I think it fits well with works like those of Debussy. On the other hand, the G5 had a brighter tone with a harder attack, perhaps more appropriate for Bach (or perhaps Bruce Hornsby is a better modern example).
These were both wonderfully feeling and sounding pianos, and I struggled to decide between them. Ultimately, I decided to go with the C5, despite it not having had any rework like the G5 had. At that time I actually considered the overhaul a bad thing, since the parts used to remake the G5 were not Yamaha or even Japanese-made, so while it had a nice sound and feel, it’s hard to say it was really a Yamaha anymore.
Besides the fact the C5 was a bit newer and technically one level up from the G5, I was just blown away by how beautiful the tone was just on simple chords in the mid/high register. While the low register was not as powerful as the rebuilt G5, honestly I don’t play that many pieces that showcase the low register that much. Not to mention, the C5 was much more different than my G2 in many ways, so I thought if I was going to pay the money to upgrade to it (trading in my damaged G2), I might at least get something different.
However, no story is complete without at least one surprising turn, right? It turns out that after I wrote the above (right after I did the paperwork to purchase the C5), I had trouble sleeping during the night since I was thinking about whether I made the right decision. While I spent over an hour the last time I was at the store (of a total of 3 trips), I had found the C5 piano relatively late in the day, and as a result I only spent a few minutes on it, compared to much more time on the G5. The store was about to close and I didn’t want to keep everyone to keep things open just for my sake, so I admittedly rushed my decision and went with the C5 after being amazed by its complex tone. But in the back of my mind, a doubt remained that the soft attack of the C5 wouldn’t work well with some types of music that I frequently played.
So, being compelled to resolve this inner conflict in my head, I decided to head over again the next day to the store, despite having already paid. Fortunately the G5 hadn’t been purchased yet, so I spent a solid 30 minutes trying different songs between the G5 and the C5 that sat side-by-side. The staff at Classic Pianos was very nice, and said it wasn’t uncommon for people to be indecisive about such a big purchase. (Also, the interior design of the multi-building site of Classic Pianos itself is beautiful, which makes it even more worth the trip.)
In the end, out of around ten songs there was only one or two that sounded and felt better on the C5 (Debussy’s “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” was one such work), and the majority were hands-down better on the G5. For example, Beethoven’s piece “Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op.13 ‘Pathetique’” sounded way, way better on the G5, likely because of the new bass strings, whereas on the C5 it just sounded muddy and disinteresting. Another song that I enjoy playing, David Benoit’s “Cloud Break”, just felt sleepy and boring on the C5, whereas it had real kick on the G5. In addition, the C5’s keys felt like they were a little slow on fast passages.
I soon got over my concern that some of the G5’s parts used in the remaking were not of Japanese origin, since they sounded great, not to mention that I think the piano will last for many years without requiring serious maintenance, as opposed to the competing C5 (that I was told had no significant rework) which I feel has a better chance of requiring more maintenance in the shorter term.
(Update: after talking to Classic Pianos again, I learned that the full set of bass strings was replaced using Hellerbass (a pretty famous name), and the entire set of hammers (for the whole piano) was replaced using Ronsen, with Yamaha shanks and flanges.)
I also realized that one of the reasons I went with the C5 originally was because it was “reserved”, in the sense that the, well, piano is greener on the other side. Originally I didn’t know the price or even the model, and when I surreptitiously tried to play it there was a secret joy that I had found something wonderful. The fact that C5 was technically a higher level than the G5 also factored in, though in retrospect I think features intended for a conservatory (like modifications to improve projection, which I guess were for stage performances) don’t necessarily make it better for me.
After all that, I finally decided with certainty that the G5 was the right one for me. It was a huge coincidence that these pianos were the same exact price, so I could easily change my mind without having to pay more or less than I already had. And even though I ended up going somewhat over my original intended budget, I think this piano will likely be able to last me for the next few decades. (Although in the chance I manage to ever find a way to make money using the piano, It’s good to know I can always upgrade to something else.)
But if you still think it’s strange for a guy who considers himself somewhat stingy about money to throw down over ten grand on a grand (pun intended), I’ll let you guess the one item I generally answer when asked about what I would bring to a deserted island (:
The piano hasn’t been delivered yet, but I plan to write some followup article(s) on it in the future. If you have any piano song requests feel free to let me know in the comments.
I want to thank Classic Pianos for all their time and effort, especially Taylor who was a kind, well informed piano salesman. Also thanks to Piano Forums who has countless posts about anything you can think of piano-related.
By the way, I happen to be in the process of trying to share my piano music in a new form, but for the time being you can listen to some of my existing songs here (the second link has some stuff made with MIDI digital instruments as well).
