Has anyone here played or owned a Yamaha b1 aka Yamaha JU109 piano? Would love to hear your feedback and thoughts on this piano.
Six years ago, I settled on the Casio Privia Slim PX-S3000, and bizarrely enough, the KORG microKEY Air 37 as my summer pianos in Mauritius.
I didn't stick with the KORG very long and ended up with a Casiotone SA-51, which I use more as a portable Indian harmonium rather than a piano.
As for the PX-S3000, it has served me decently, but now it will likely find its way to the home of a talented violinist who'd love to learn a second instrument. So I have the unique opportunity to consider what my next piano might be.
If there's one thing the PX-S3000 excels at, it's being super-stylish, and more importantly, one of the thinnest and smallest keyboards available, which made it uniquely suitable as a piece of furniture that was easy to place at my parent's home in Mauritius and be accepted. In retrospect, it may have been the perfect trojan horse to sneak in an acoustic into the house.
My options are super limited on the local market. I thought I'd consider the Keybird X1, but they aren't very communicative, so it's simply not within the realm of possibility. There are no Kawai or Chinese piano dealers with stock on the island.
Fortunately there is a Yamaha dealer in Mauritius and they have exactly 2 acoustic pianos available, the Yamaha GB1K, which I would more than love to have but is quite simply out of the question because it is a grand, and the Yamaha JU109 PE upright.
The JU109 is Yamaha's most basic budget entry-level upright. In America, it is known as the Yamaha b1.
The advantage of buying from a local dealer is that Yamaha takes special care in treating and acclimatizing a piano for the target market. This upright was manufactured in 2024, so it is probably one of the very last that was built in Indonesia. The dealer appears to be offering a fair all-inclusive price as well.
I really don't want to go down the digital path again, and I'll be armed and ready with my tuning hammer.
I'm wondering if anyone here has thoughts and experience playing on the b1 or JU109?
