I have recently been looking into purchasing a new Yamaha C3...I just >wanted to ask you all a few questions about it. One, is 15,000 a good price >for a new one? My two cents: Frankly, I'm suspicious of the price. I don't know how anyone can make a living selling C3s that close to invoice. But if it's true, a C3 is an extraordinary deal at $15,000. One thing to consider is that new Yahamas seem to be depreciating faster now than any other piano it its class (due to market oversaturation I presume). Your C3 will be worth about $9,000 in five years. That really doesn't matter if you like the sound. I second the motion that you should play rebuilt pianos. For that price, you're nearly in fully-rebuilt Mason&Hamlin A territory. The M&H A has more tonal and dynamic potential. There seem to be limits to how far you can voice a C3 without cutting out its balls. I'm not a big fan of Steinway, but they're like money in the bank (although even -that- seems to be changing as we speak). Mason & Hamlin reputation is on the upswing and will not likely depreciate if you buy well. Re: the Petrof: I strongly disagree that they're as junky (now) as most technicians believe. It's been my observation that most technicians are actually a few years behind brand development by virtue of the fact that they're mostly servicing older versions of the pianos you're presently shopping for. I have been shopping very hard recently and seriously considered a Petrof IV that I played at Cunningham in Philly. I thought that tonally the Petrof was far superior to the C3 and had much more voicing potential. The action was substantially heavier than a C3, but very even and fast to repeat. The construction quality was substantially less uniform than C3, but acceptable. In short, it seemed far a more musical instrument to me than a Yahama. BTW, the Petrof IV I was looking at was sitting right next to the new 6' Schimmel, and I was able to observe that there are many similarities in the scale design of both pianos. I actually thought that the Petrof compared very well to the Schimmel. It was louder and brighter, but had a beautiful sustain and clear bass. Schimmels are voiced extensively at the factory. I thought that the Petrof could have potentially been brought down to a very similar sound. You need to play a Petrof after it's been voiced very thoroughly. That's what makes it difficult for the consumer, as most dealers require you buy the instrument on faith and -then- voice it. Exactly the opposite that it should be. Getting back to rebuilt: I am fortunate to live in an area where I can drive to a good re-build shop such as Cunningham, where I can move from Bosendorfer to Schimmel to Mason & Hamlin to Petrof right down to (yecch) Samick and Young Chang in the new piano dept., and -then- go downstairs and start moving from one very nicely rebuilt pre-war instrument to another, from the heights of Bluthner and Bechstein to the more modest little Lesters and Knabes, with many wonderful instruments in-between. (personally I wanted the Bluthner!) You owe it to yourself to do something like this at least once to see what on earth your tonal personality is. Do you even know what you personally like? Forget about price for a day and just play pianos. If after doing this you still have no knowledge of what kind of voice you prefer, then it doesn't matter: just buy the Yahmaha. Like an Honda Accord, it'll never break down, and your tuner will love you. . . FWIW, George Gilliland ---------------------- Little Garden Design 134 Broad Street 2nd Floor Stroudsburg PA 18360 717 422 1255 717 422 1257 (fax) ----------------------
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