Petrof and Samick quality

[Les Smith]

>
>    An older student here has asked me about the Petrof & Samick pianos. I
> searched the archives but couldn't come up with anything except the bass
> string breakage on Samick thread.
>    Does anyone have some experience servicing these pianos? How is their
> overall quality, tuning stability, action? She was told that the Petrof
> has a Renner action.
>    She is hoping to buy a grand in the near future, so I would appreciate
> any information, on the list or private, that anyone could share with me. I
> have no experience with the Petrof and have only tuned a couple of Samick's
> (not too impressed).
>    Thanks.
>
> Avery Todd, RPT
> University of Houston
> atodd@uh.edu

My perspective when looking at a Samick is different from most in that my
early training was for a career as a concert pianist. By the same token, I
spent 10 of the the 12 years as the head tuner/tech for one of the largest
rebuilders in NY state, who just happens to also be a Samick dealer. I thus
have seen alot of Samicks from both sides of the keyboard, so to speak: as
a pianist, and as a technician.

Samicks are much improved in recent years. Some of you may remember when
they first started coming into this country under the name Horugel and
quickly established a reputation for cracked sounboards, bad pinblocks,
sticking, unresponsive actions, warped case parts and the inability to hold
a tune. Those were really bad instruments, similar in quality to the
Pearl River jumkers now coming out of mainland China. Samick, however,
proved to be a quick study, and their newer instruments are much improved
over those early ones. In terms of quality they are much superior to their
country cousin Young-Chang, and certainly better than anything Aeolian Corp.
cranked out the last quarter of a century or so of their existence.

That said, however, to paraphrase "Dirty Harry" a piano has to know it's
limitations. The Samick is a well-made, attractive-looking, fairly priced
piano suitable for in-home use by amateur pianists of limited technical
ability and a not-too-discerning ear. By no stretch of imagination are these
instruments for serious advanced students or professional pianists. To be
blunt their tone-quality is absolutely terrible and no amount of voicing
or tone-regulating work can do much to improve it. Classical music--Chopin,
Liszt, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, etc--sounds simply dreadful on these pianos.
The tone quality and color necessary for such works just isn't present in
the Samick piano. So if you're advising a serious studen of such music, tell
them to look elsewhere.

Personally, to such as student, assuming they had $10,000 or so to spend,
I would advise looking for a vintage S&S, or M&H in good condition. I would
have it tuned, regulated and voiced and then start saving up for the rebuild.
On the otherhand, if you're talking to a somewhat less accomplished pianist
who is merely looking for something that looks good and plays okay and re-
presents a good value for the dollar, you might suggest that they look at
a Samick.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net