Petrof Grands

[Ric Brekne]

Hi Ric

Having extensive experience with Petrofs I can say right off that your 
general description of <<potentially very good sound qualities>> coupled 
with <<lousy feel to the touch>> is something I have been frustrated 
with since I first run into them. The actions are often very poorly put 
together and there are other typical problems that pop up on examples of 
the make.  That said.... I have to say they are one of the pianos I find 
most rewarding to work on... exactly because of that overall sound 
picture.  The action is something that is easy to access, easy to work 
on independant of the piano as it were... and you can zip up an Petrof 
action quite a bit with some straightforward action work.  One thing I 
find contributes to what I personally dont like about the Petrof touch 
is that action felts are very soft. New (firmer felt) front punchings, 
centerpin bushins,  and whippen cushions can make a big difference in 
Petrofs. Petrofs official voicing as I understand it is crown area only 
oriented.  They do not usually employ laquer but rather very hard 
hammers and there is no deep shoulder needling. This was related to me 
by Andre' after one of his visits there.  If you are lucky you wont have 
to do major re-allignment of parts. If you on top of things do some 
basic Stanwood action balancing then you can end up with a very fine 
playing action indeed and bring out that nice sound picture to its fullest.

Petrofs are easy to criticize for sure, but they are very nicely priced 
and they do indeed have a very nice sound. And most of the problems they 
have most of the time are fairly easy to rectify.  In most regards.. a 
tone builders dream come true.  You can make a big noticible difference 
that the customer will love you for.

Cheers
RicB


Hi List,
I am trying to find out more about Petrof grand actions and what  
appears to
be a problem with their setting-up/geometry etc.  I recently  came 
across a 12
year old large grand which has potentially very good sound  qualities but a
lousy feel to the touch.  Whilst I need to go back and  carry out an 
in-depth
inspection to make further judgement, my limited  experience of Petrof 
grands
is that they generally have a question mark over the  touch.  There are 
some
quite negative comments on the web, particularly  from a team from a music
institution who tried out several instruments.
Have any of you action geometry guys had experience of analyzing the  
Petrof  
action and doing any re-thinking on it?   This particular  one is quoted as
having a Renner action.
I would appreciate any leads on this before I venture quite a long  
distance
to see it again.
 
Thanks,
 
ric