Yamaha C3/Petrof

[George Gilliland]

I have recently been looking into purchasing a new Yamaha C3...I just
>wanted to ask you all a few questions about it. One, is 15,000 a good price
>for a new one?

My two cents:

Frankly, I'm suspicious of the price. I don't know how anyone can make a
living selling C3s that close to invoice. But if it's true, a C3 is an
extraordinary deal at $15,000. One thing to consider is that new Yahamas
seem to be depreciating faster now than any other piano it its class (due
to market oversaturation I presume). Your C3 will be worth about $9,000 in
five years. That really doesn't matter if you like the sound.

I second the motion that you should play rebuilt pianos. For that price,
you're nearly in fully-rebuilt Mason&Hamlin A territory. The M&H A has more
tonal and dynamic potential. There seem to be limits to how far you can
voice a C3 without cutting out its balls. I'm not a big fan of Steinway,
but they're like money in the bank (although even -that- seems to be
changing as we speak). Mason & Hamlin reputation is on the upswing and will
not likely depreciate if you buy well.

Re: the Petrof: I strongly disagree that they're as junky (now) as most
technicians believe. It's been my observation that most technicians are
actually a few years behind brand development by virtue of the fact that
they're mostly servicing older versions of the pianos you're presently
shopping for.

I have been shopping very hard recently and seriously considered a Petrof
IV that I played at Cunningham in Philly. I thought that tonally the Petrof
was far superior to the C3 and had much more voicing potential. The action
was substantially heavier than a C3, but very even and fast to repeat. The
construction quality was substantially less uniform than C3, but
acceptable. In short, it seemed far a more musical instrument to me than a
Yahama.

BTW, the Petrof IV I was looking at was sitting right next to the new 6'
Schimmel, and I was able to observe that there are many similarities in the
scale design of both pianos. I actually thought that the Petrof compared
very well to the Schimmel. It was louder and brighter, but had a beautiful
sustain and clear bass. Schimmels are voiced extensively at the factory. I
thought that the Petrof could have potentially been brought down to a very
similar sound.

You need to play a Petrof after it's been voiced very thoroughly. That's
what makes it difficult for the consumer, as most dealers require you buy
the instrument on faith and -then- voice it. Exactly the opposite that it
should be.

Getting back to rebuilt: I am fortunate to live in an area where I can
drive to a good re-build shop such as Cunningham, where I can move from
Bosendorfer to Schimmel to Mason & Hamlin to Petrof right down to (yecch)
Samick and Young Chang in the new piano dept., and -then- go downstairs and
start moving from one very nicely rebuilt pre-war instrument to another,
from the heights of Bluthner and Bechstein to the more modest little
Lesters and Knabes, with many wonderful instruments in-between. (personally
I wanted the Bluthner!)

You owe it to yourself to do something like this at least once to see what
on earth your tonal personality is. Do you even know what you personally
like? Forget about price for a day and just play pianos. If after doing
this you still have no knowledge of what kind of voice you prefer, then it
doesn't matter: just buy the Yahmaha. Like an Honda Accord, it'll never
break down, and your tuner will love you. . .

FWIW,
George Gilliland

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