Reviewer: Charles Bubeck
e-mail: not available
Date submitted: May 18, 2002
Purchase Price: $1700.00
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Sound & Tone
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Rating:
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8
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Comments:
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The Yamaha instruments are tuned to a-442 so they are slightly brighter than the more popular musser pro-vibe models. However, the consistency of tone throughout the instrument is wonderful and I find it easy to get a good sound out of all ranges of the instrument with a variety of different mallets. I've been playing on my YV-2500 for 17 years and it has endured the tortures of endlessly travelling around the east coast without suffering any loss of tone or needing to be re-tuned. It has been a work horse for me.
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Design & Construction
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Rating:
| 8
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Comments:
| The reason I originally bought the YV-2500 was because of the construction of the frame. It is easily portable yet sufficiently strong enough to put up with life on the road. The frame height is adjustable. The original casters on this model were rather small, but easily replaced by some of the newer, larger Yamaha casters.
For many wonderful years I never had to worry about any extraneous noises from my YV-2500. However, after 17 years of abuse and travel I find myself having to deal with some rattling and buzzing from the resonators - The rivets that hold the individual resonators to the connecting bar have come loose over time - something I fix from time to time with a combination of epoxy and duct tape. Not pretty, but efficient.
I was never really happy with the way the belt driven motor worked. The motor itself was extremely quiet and you could adjust the speed very easily. It also had a funky little sensor so you could turn the motor off and on just by touching the side of the motor control panel. It was pretty cool, but I'm not sure how useful. The main body of the motor had a steel rod that operated as a drive shaft for the two belts that turned the fans. The problem with this design is that if you ever drop the motor and bend the drive shaft rod, it is nearly impossible to straighten the rod so that the belts can operate properly. I tried many different ways to fix this problem, but as I prefer a no-vibrato sound anyway, I eventually just got rid of the motor and fan blades altogether.
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Appearance
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Rating:
| 5
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Comments:
| The YV-2500 was certainly built for function - not beauty. It doesn't hold a candle to the Beautiful Musser Century vibe - but it it ain't THAT ugly!
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Customer Support
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Rating:
| 1
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Comments:
| I've tried a couple of times to get extra parts for my YV-2500 directly from Yamaha...and they were a big pain in the ass. Yamaha didn't want to deal with me directly, they told me I had to go to my local music store that carried Yamaha equipment. Noone in the local music stores even knows what a vibraphone is, let alone how to order casters for it, or damper felt - so I've been on my own.
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Overall Rating
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Rating:
| 8
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Comments:
| Overall, I am very happy with the YV-2500. The sound is good up and down the instrument and it is very portable - which is extremely important to me since I am a jazz musician and I'm constantly hauling the instrument around.
I wish they still made this model...I would buy another one in a minute! According to Yamaha they have improved the frames a great deal since that early model. However, I own one of those later models (the YV-2700) and although it is certainly a stronger frame, it is so difficult to take apart that I would never even consider travelling with the instrument. So much for progress.
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