<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Eric Frankson wrote:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    "<FONT face="Times = New Roman" size=3>.  I've been told by piano technicians that the Petrof = grand is <BR>way underpriced, and the increased sales of the pianos verses the = Yamaha seem <BR>to point to that ( the choice being, purchase a mass produced machine-made <BR>Asian instrument using the least expensive materials to = create a piano of a <BR>certain performance level, or buy a hand-built = labor-intensive European <BR>instrument from a 145 year old company that uses some of = the finest woods in <BR>the world...at the same price point.  Hmmm?).  = The veneers in Mahogany and <BR>Walnut are really beautiful, too.  The = new instruments seem to need a bit of <BR>voicing (they come in rather = bright, but in a bell-like way verses a brassy <BR>way), but have tremendous = sustain.  This new crop of Petrof's are exceptional <BR>for the price."</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    Glad they're so = good, Eric. I look forward to encountering one of the newer ones. But, and it's a big = but, I've seen so many "hand built, labor intensive, hand crafted" pianos = where everyone has dropped the ball to the extent that you just want to = rebuild the thing, that I'll take a Yamaha or a Kawai and day of the week. I KNOW = that I can make one of those perform like a dream and sing like a violin. When I = hear "hand crafted" I usually think that "OK, this one will probably take about a = day and a half to get right. " </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    But, as I said, I = haven't seen too many Petrof's yet, maybe they're the exception to the rule.</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV></FONT> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kevin  Ramsey<BR><A href="mailto:ramsey@extremezone.com">ramsey@extremezone.com</A> </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>