[Larry is traveling and asked me to make this post, excerpted from his Publisher Message in the new issue of Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer available free, online at www.pianobuyer.com. Our print edition will be avaiable in the next two weeks.]

The first issue of Piano Buyer required a tremendous investment of time and money to produce, and I'm pleased to report that it's been enthusiastically received by both readers and advertisers. In the first six months, about 30,000 individuals have accessed Piano Buyer online or in print, with online visits totaling close to 80,000. This issue is brought to you courtesy of 75 advertisers, including virtually every major piano manufacturer, and many of the largest piano retailers in the U.S. and Canada. When you have occasion to interact with them, please let them know that you appreciate their support for Piano Buyer. A special thanks to Frank Baxter, founder and host of the Piano World online community, and to that community itself, who has been very gracious in supporting our efforts.

In this issue, we offer several new articles for your reading pleasure: a review of Group 3 Performance-Grade "Value" Pianos by guest reviewers Dr. Owen Lovell (terminaldegree) and Adrean Farrugia (AJF), both regular contributors to Piano World's online forum (p. 115); a delightful piece titled "Everything Old Is New Again," by Temperament author Stuart Isacoff, on reconnecting with the past through the restoration of vintage pianos (p. 68); the first of two articles of candid comments about high-end pianos by piano technicians who service these outstanding instruments (p. 79); a practical guide for digital piano shoppers, by digital piano editor Alden Skinner, on what to do if you have only $2,000 to spend on an instrument (p. 149); and Alden's review of Vienna Imperial, the high-end piano software package from Vienna Symphonic Library (p. 145).

Don't forget to explore the rest of our website. If you're shopping for a new piano, the searchable online database of 3,000 models will allow you to home in quickly on the instruments that match your requirements for size, furniture style, and budget. If you missed the last issue of Piano Buyer, you'll find it under the Archives tab. And over the next six months, we'll be adding other content, as well as the ability to better search for the information you're looking for.

Re. the review of Group 3 Performance-Grade "Value" Pianos for Petrof .

It's a shame the information is already somewhat 'outdated' before it becomes 'new'.

The grand models under review are P V, P IV, P III whereas reviewing their new line of grands, P 159 Bora, P 173 Breeze and P 194 Storm would be much moer interesting.

schwammerl.

Hi Schwammerl,

As I mentioned before, the 4 petrof models reviewed represented the reality of dealer inventories in my area in January 2010, ergo the information is still very relevant; it will be interesting to try one of the new models, indeed.

Just going to see and play these 4 pianos involved 300 miles of driving.