Yamaha Avant Grand N1 touchweight

[kgb_55]

Hi all,

I have been playing on a Yamaha N1 for a year now. Great piano but... I find the touchweight to be too havy. I did a simple check with coins and ended up with approx 60-70 grams. 70 at the low end and 60 at the high end. I do have problems when I play a Steinway at the lessons, the Steinway being much lighter o play. Practie for a month on the Yamaha and then playing to hours on the Steinway. I also have a Grotrian Steinweg 120 (sine a week) which is in the middle of the Steinway and the N1.

Questions:
- Does anybody else agree that the N1 (and N2, N3 I guess) are pretty heavy to play?
- Does anybody have experience from both the Avant Grand and Yamaha ordinary grand pianos?
- Are all Yamahas heay to play?

I would very much appreciate any comments on this issue.

Thanks,
Kjell-Göran Bergendahl / Sweden

[eric0773]

I agree with you. My teacher has an Avantgrand N3, and it has the heaviest keys I have ever played on. No that it is a bad thing, but it takes time each session to get used to it.

I have no experience with the Yamaha C series, but my teacher tells me that the weight is similar. Students that train on AGs have little to no adaptation effort when playing on a C7 at the recital. On the other hand, I do have experience with the U1 upright and I find the keys on the N3 to be heavier (although no that much).

AG are great instruments. It seems that they force you to develop good habits, so to speak, both in terms of touch and voicing. On my digital Roland FP 7-F via Pianoteq, the melody and contrasts are much simpler to emphasize. This makes my playing "lazy" on other pianos, where I need to make the melody sing much more. The AGs do not have, in my opinion, such shortcomings. I would much prefer mastering my pieces on the AG than on my current DP.

[lloyd_cdb]

I have a Yamaha C3 and have found the exact same thing to be an issue. I had tested the keys with coins a while ago and found a similar weighting ~64g @ A4. It's frustratingly heavy for my tiny hands/frail little arms.

[hfmadopter]

I have a Yamaha C3 and have found the exact same thing to be an issue. I had tested the keys with coins a while ago and found a similar weighting ~64g @ A4. It's frustratingly heavy for my tiny hands/frail little arms.

Since you own the C3 you might want to contact a tech and get an estimate on having the keys counter weighted to a weight you would like. It's a shame to have a beautiful instrument like that and not realize the full joy of ownership.

Years ago my teachers Steinway's touch weight was heavy as well, I weighted my grands keys to more closely match hers. Recently I took some of that weight out again . It was silly to keep the weight so high on my own piano when that Steinway is no longer available to me. But my grand's keys were very light when I first got it, so I didn't go back to that weight either. My Kawai MP6 digital has slightly heavier action than my grand but close enough.

[kgb_55]

Hi all,

Thanks for your comments. It seems that we share the same experience. I like my N1 VERY MUCH and I will not part from it even though I also bought a Grotrian Steinweg upright. If possible I would like to get the N1 a little lighter touch though. I will check with the Yamaha support in Sweden. The Avant Grands are great instruments. I wonder what will come next from Yamaha...

Kjell-Göran B / Sweden

[lloyd_cdb]

Since you own the C3 you might want to contact a tech and get an estimate on having the keys counter weighted to a weight you would like. It's a shame to have a beautiful instrument like that and not realize the full joy of ownership.

I've contemplated it, but I fear the reprecussions of change. Voicing and weighting are a lot diffferent than tuning, makes me a bit overly paranoid.

[tony20172]

on my AG N3 you can ajust the weightof the keys touch, in the control panel   by tapping in either 1 2 3 accordingly from light to heavy hope this helps

[hfmadopter]

on my AG N3 you can ajust the weightof the keys touch, in the control panel   by tapping in either 1 2 3 accordingly from light to heavy hope this helps

I know they may call that feature Touch and describe the changes from light to heavy but are you sure the feature you speak of really adjusts the weight ? In most digital pianos changing that choice between settings really adjusts the velocity response. The actual key weight stays the same, since that is a mechanical function.

[whiteboyfunk]

I'm not sure if you're resolved your issue here or not yet, but let me tell you what I've reiterated and what my professor echoes as far as traditional Yamaha vs Steinway & Sons touch. Yamahas are generally lighter in touch, sometimes described as airy...or something. The Steinways you will probably get to play will feel a to be a bit more of a monster on a leash.

I have come across some Yamahas (a C7 I do play from time to time comes to mind) that have not been recently regulated and have an almost blocky feel to them. That could be the cause of what you've experienced on those Yamahas. An amount of maintenance ought to bring that typical Yamaha touch back to them.

[johnmar78]

i used to add weights to my paino, but when comes to light touch i found its hard to control. Soem pianoist have had 2 pianos, one is ligter tahn other in terms of touch. This is good for finger control when you have both.

[rick1955]

Hi,
I'm new here and just got delivery of my N2 yesterday. Before I bought it I thought the touch was a little heavy as well. I mentioned this to the salesman/technician at the piano shop and he said because they have an actual grand piano keyboard that the touch can be adjusted thru regulation. He said he had done this for people, and although it is much harder to gain access on an Avant Grand it is doable.

Hope this helps,

Rick D.

[briansaddleback]

Yamaha avant grand N2 is the bomb the dream digital piano for me. Gotta get one soon.

[bronnestam]

I am also delighted with them. I sooo wish an N1 ... But I have a Yamaha 465GP (digital baby grand) already) and I like it very much and I've only had it for 4 years and besides it certainly looks much better than the AvantGrands. So I guess I should wait yet a few years.
But the key action is perfect to me, as I like Yamaha acoustic grands a lot. The sound can never be the same as an acoustic but I don't care, I play with headphones most of the time anyway.

Only thing that puzzles me is that the AvantGrands are said not to have a USB port. Is that true? And do they have more voices than just piano? Not that I use the other voices on my present piano that much. I sometimes connect my smartphone with music to the piano so that I can play along. That is very convenient.

[oldmancoyote]

@bronnestam:

AvantGrands have a USB port (USB-to-device), but not a USB-to-host facility. You need to use MIDI in/out ports to do anything other than reading music from the USB and playing it on the AG, but it sounds this is what you want to do anyway.

The N1/N2/N3 have 5 built-in voices: 2 classical acoustic pianos (with very subtle differences, at least that I can hear on my N1), 2 electrical pianos (Wurlitzer-type 1960 psychedelic stuff) and 1 harpsichord (damn loud and not too nice in tone, IMHO).