Do you know ETERNA, KAISER and MIKI pianos had been made by YAMAHA?
Actually, these brands had been produced along with consignment by certain
YAMAHA dealers at that time between 1970's to 1990's. To say what does it
means, ETERNA, KAISER and MIKI pianos were certainly made by YAMAHA
although the brand names are different.
For example, there are piano brands BOSTON and ESSEX. These brands' pianos
are originally designed by STEINWAY&SONS, the leading piano manufacturer.
BOSTON and ESSEX pianos are manufactured outside STEINWAY, but along with
their design and instruction (BOSTON is manufactured at KAWAI factory and ESSEX
is manufactured at PEARL RIVER factory in China). Since the pianos have been made
under the same concepts of design as STEINWAY&SONS pianos (with reasonable prices
compared with STEINWAY Pianos), these brands achieve high reputation in piano market
overseas.
Since ETERNA, KAISER, MIKI pianos had been manufactured by YAMAHA,
so ETERNA, KAISER, MIKI are good choices for "reasonably-priced pianos
made by YAMAHA." You can see YAMAHA logo on the hammer rail as proof of
"MADE BY YAMAHA" from the above photos. As same as YAMAHA produced
pianos, DIAPASON, MARCHEN and EMPEROR pianos had been made by KAWAI.
Normally, these second brand pianos are manufactured based on either YAMAHA
or KAWAI original model and customized partially. For example, ETERNA E1A has
the same design and instruction with YAMAHA U1A model, but tuning pins are
upgraded from chromium plated pins to nickel plated pins.