Dear David Forman and List, When I started working as a piano technician (early seventies), I = spent a considderable time working for two piano dealers. These shops both sold petrof piano's, uprights and grands. They also sold F=F6rster and R=F6sler, coming from the same factory. So I have worked on quite a number of these instruments. In the first piano workshop, the piano technicians were allowed to = spend >one whole day< on this instrument. It was necessary because = almost everything was wrong: keydepth a mile too deep, regulation = hopeless, voicing east european, materials cheap etc. In short: it = was pretty bad. Grands, same story. The reason why they were sold? inexpensive and = amazingly! a nice bass and overall a sort of romantic sound. Also, because of their reasonable pricing, a number of these piano's = were sold to music schools and conservatories. When I started my own business, one of my first big clients was the = conservatory of Amsterdam and there I encountered all kinds of piano = names amongst which was Petrof and F=F6rster! These last ones were in the worst condition compared to the others. After some years of doing work for this institute, they trusted me = and asked my advise about replacing and buying new piano's. The = petrofs etc were the first ones to leave the house through the = backdoor. A number of years ago the Factory in former Checho-Slovakia tried to = improve their product by (amongst others) replacing their east bloc = hammers with decent Renners. The regulation however is still quite = miserable compared to good old Yamaha. The reason that they are still being sold and quite popular, is the = price. Among my customers are a number of (ex)Conservatory students who came = from eastern Europe, (Albania, Rumania, Bulgaria, and other Balkans) they told me that = back home they only played on Petrof, even in Concert Halls unless it = was really important.(then there would be an old Steinway or Yamaha = Concert Grand, for recitals). This gives us a reason to show some extra respect for our fellow = humans living in eastern Europe. Friendly Greetings from: CONCERT PIANO SERVICE Andr=E9 Oorebeek Amsterdam, the Netherlands email address: oorebeek@euronet.nl =89 Where Music is no harm can be =89
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