Used Yamaha grand pianos

Brief history of Yamaha pianos including models and prices


It’s from 1966 that we first see Yamaha pianos in Europe. These early models sound the most like German pianos, with a good deep mellow tone throughout the range. They are more expensively constructed with top quality soundboards, excellent hammers, wooden pedal mechanisms on uprights and mostly wooden action parts. As the Korean and later the Chinese factories began to produce large numbers of pianos in competition with Yamaha, so the Yamaha piano started to be made more economically. Wooden parts were replaced by plastic or aluminium, though lately there has been a return to wooden action flanges. The tone also started to lack the rich depth that it previously had. The gradual brightening of tone is evident until about 1990, when Yamaha brought out what they called a hand-built piano, grands starting at £28,000 and uprights at £7,699. Yamaha now operate a two-tier system with top quality pianos made in Japan and their basic and mid-range grands and uprights made in Indonesia, the UK and elsewhere. For more information please view our main Yamaha piano page

 yamaha grand Piano

Buying a used Yamaha grand piano


u1h yamaha upright piano by yamaha pianos

We’ve been selling Used Yamaha grand pianos for over 20 years and sell over 10 used Yamaha grands each year. They are carefully regulated, the bass strings are replaced if they have lost their tone. We then finely run some final checks before tuning them and guarantee them for 5 years.

Yamaha GB1


The new Yamaha GB1 baby grand sounds reasonable at first but unfortunately shows up as not being well made when it comes to tuning and maintaining it. Economy has been the watchword in making this piano. They have also left out the hugely advantageous adjustable music desk which is standard on practically all baby grand pianos. If you’re looking for a budget priced baby grand then you’re much better off choosing a baby grand from the 1920s or 30s, during this time Yamaha were in competition to make the standard of baby grands to a very high quality; the baby grands are also a good choice if you have a small spaces. Baby grands also hold a good tone and provide good performance considering they are much cheaper. Alternatively, if you prefer to buy a new piano, we recommend the respected Austrian firm Wendl and Lung (merged with Feurich in May 2011, whose name they are now using). Their 161cm and 178cm grand pianos are finely designed and very well finished off.

gb1 yamaha baby grand piano by yamaha pianos

Most common used Yamaha grand pianos in the UK in order of length:


Model Date of manufacture Dimensions (WxHxD) Colour Weight No. pedals
G1B 1988 – 1990 148 x 101 x 160 Black polyester 285kg 3
G1E 1990 149 x 101 x 161 Black Polyester 290kg 3
G2E 1971 – 1985 148 x 101 x 169 Black Polyester 300kg 2
G2A 1985 – 1988 148 x 101 x 169 Black Polyester 300kg 3
G2B 1988 – 1990 148 x 101 x 169 Black Polyester 300kg 3
G2E 1990 149 x 101 x 173 Black Polyester 300kg 3
G3E 1971 – 1990 148 x 101 x 183 Black Polyester 310kg. 315kg (1990 onwards) 2 (3 from 1990 onwards)
G3A 1985 – 1988 148 x 101 x 183 Black Polyester 310kg 3
G3B 1988 – 1990 148 x 101 x 183 Black Polyester 310kg 3
G3E 1990 149 x 101 x 183 Black Polyester 315kg 3
G5E 1971 – 1985 148 x 101 x 197 Black Polyester 330kg 2
G5A 1985 – 1988 148 x 101 x 197 Black Polyester 330kg 3
G5B 1988 – 1990 148 x 101 x 197 Black Polyester 330kg 3
G5E 1990 149 x 101 x 200 Black Polyester 340kg 3
C3 1979 – 1985 148 x 101 x 183 Black Polyester 335kg 2
C3A 1985 – 1988 148 x 101 x 183 Black Polyester 315kg 3
C3B 1988 – 1990 148 x 101 x 183 Black Polyester 315kg 3
C3E 1990 149 x 101 x 186 Black Polyester 320kg 3
C5 1979 – 1985 148 x 101 x 197 Black Polyester 357kg 3
C5A 1985 – 1988 148 x 101 x 197 Black Polyester 330kg 3
C5B 1988 – 1990 148 x 101 x 197 Black Polyester 335kg 3
C5E 1990 154 x 102 x 212 Black Polyester 380kg 3
C7 1979 – 1983 155 x 102 x 223 Black Polyester 415kg 3
C7A 1983 – 1988 155 x 102 x 223 Black Polyester 395kg 3
C7B 1988 – 1990 155 x 102 x 227 Black Polyester 397kg 3
C7E 1990 155 x 102 x 227 Black Polyester 330kg 3

To see our stock of Yamaha pianos and more please visit our stocklist