Yamaha GB1* vs Wendl & Lung 161

In order to review the Yamaha GB1 baby grand, we've compared it to a similarly priced baby grand, the Wendl and Lung 161 (NB from 2011 Wendl & Lung have amalgamated with Feurich and are using the Feurich name from June 2011). We believe it shows a marked difference in philosophy between the two firms. The Yamaha GB1 is Yamaha's cheapest baby grand and it appears that they are trying to cut as many corners as possible. In contrast, Wendl and Lung have tried not to compromise on quality. Below are some of the more visible examples of this:

Yamaha GB1 grand	Wendl and Lung Professional 1
RRP £9900	RRP £8450
Length 149cm (4ft 11in)	Length 161cm (5ft 3in)
Basic simple hammers. Only time will tell what quality they are, but not having the undercovering certainly means they are not so expensive.	Undercovered hammers. With good hammers the tone is maintained over many years.
Ordinary scaling with no additional resonance.	Duplex scaling. Invented by Theodore Steinway in 1872, this permits the parts of the string near its ends, which otherwise would be damped with cloth, to vibrate freely, thus increasing resonance and adding to the richness of the sound.
Fixed music desk which lifts out rather than slides. We think this is a very inconvenient economy; no other grand pianos are designed in this way.	Slideable music desk found on all other grand pianos; necessary if you want to adjust the distance to accommodate your eyesight; most pianists use this facility.
Difficulty in tuning due to the high rail in front of the tuning pins. It's actually impossible to get the tuning lever on at the angle shown, which is the normal angle for the top treble. Instead the lever has to be held at the opposite angle to that which is best for tuning.	Normal design allowing the piano to be tuned easily and at the right angle.

*IMPORTANT NOTE 2011:
We have tried without success many times over the years to ask Yamaha why they continued with this unfortunate design on the GB1 and whether they could change it (referring mainly to the fixed music desk and the almost untunable top treble due to the high rail (see above). We don't really want to be in dispute with them as many of their more expensive grand pianos are of excellent quality, so hopefully this issue will be resolved very soon.

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