Petrof pianos and some respect

[Oorebeek A.]

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