<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html>   Rolland Miller wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE> Hello list, A while back I posted a question asking about what would be a  good piano to purchase for our UM Church.  We are now seriously considering  the Petrof III 6' 4" grand as we can get a good price on it and I feel it is a good piano for the money.  However, I'm conserned about the action.  One dealer we are considering says that his Petrrof III piano has a Renner action - parts made and assembled in Germany.  Another dealer says that the Petrof III 6'4" normally comes with an action using Renner parts but assembled by Petrof.  If we want a Renner action assembled by Renner the model would be the Petrof IIIM, and would cost another $4500.00.  That sounds way out of line to me. Any one have any solid information about Petrof's and Renner actions versus a Petrof action with Renner parts assembled by Petrof. Thanks, Rolland Miller, Miller Piano Service, Noth Ridgeville, OH,    MPT/PTG/rpt  </blockquote> I work with Petrofs daily. They are really "big" here in western Norway. This I believe is mainly due to the fact that they have a relatively nice round basic sound. There are at least three big problems with Petrofs. 1.  The action. I dont believe Renner assembles it, and I question whether all parts are truly Renner. In any case You must expect to have to go through the entire action checking everything from basic geometry to allignment of whippens, hammers etc. etc. ad absurdum before you try and regulate the action. Otherwise you can expect a regulation that will be unstable and uneven. 2. The tunning block is often of poor quality and fitting to the plate leaves much to be desired. On more then one occasion I have been able to insert a tuning mute between the plate and the block so that it goes over an inch in. Amazzzing. Petrofs are famous over here for not holding tunings. A guy I know in Seattle automatically sets a Petrof grand out of the box on its side and starts pumping in epoxy to fill the gaps. 3. Bridge pin work is also very bad. Makes for a lot of false beats. My advice is buy a Samick. Still, if you must have a Petrof, and are willing to take care of the action problems and make sure the tunning block is reasonably well adjusted to the plate, you can live with the false beats, and like I said, they do have an ok sound. You can stand a few feet from a Petrof and hear it played and actually be a bit impressed. If Petrof combined japanese precision with what they already do right it probably would be en excellent piano. Unfortunatly they dont. Richard Brekne Sydneskleiven 1 5010 Bergen, Norway <a href="richardb@c2i.net">E-mail Richard Brekne</a> <a href="http://home.c2i.net/ric/RicMain.html">Richard Brekne Website</a>    </html>