Pianostuff Yes that's what I said it was down to preparation. The pianos were coming out of the factory rather raw at one stage. They don't do that now. Or at least last time I played a new one from the factory it was beautiful. For a while in London though people who wanted to buy a Blüthner Model 6 would often end up with buying a Yamaha C3, because the factory preparation was streets ahead. I'm not saying a Yamaha C3 is a bad piano in any way, but the expectation is (rightly or wrongly) that a hand made European piano should be a cut above a mass produced Japanese piano. I use the terms hand made and mass produced rather incorrectly but it gets the point across.