Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Pristine 1995 Petrof PII grand but thin bass tone-any help??

Aw man, now you got me worried again! :-) haha

But there would definitely be room for SOME improvement, with either new hammers and/or bass strings, no?

I will vouch for Isaac bass strings. When I set about to restring my 7' Baldwin I opted for those and have appreciated their depth and color. The type I selected had a different type of steel core which are not for the uninitiated to attempt. Ari also rescaled them a touch as well. There are certainly many good options for wound strings.

Oh I am absolutely sorry I mismatched with the Samick of the other thread.

Not much the case with Petrofs, the bass tone is a little "slow" I would say a little stiff but not excessively.

But the panel is traditional and adequate quality.
And yes better bass strings can help , they can be better designed too.

I will correct the original answer. Sorry.

New hammers yes , but if necessary. The problem I faced with Petrof designs of the 90 's was that the hammers where very tall, that makes more flexion on the shank, and if the piano is played vigorously (Jazz type, Boogie, Salsa, percussive style) the hammers can wear fast.

It can be only slightly corrected, mostly because the string plane is high in the cavity. The whippens are yet tall and the action look like enlarged in vertical direction, which is not considered idea (the less tall the action is the more efficient it is) .

I noticed a very fast wear of hammers on a Petrof build piano of that era, only in 6 years playing. (with lack of maintenance indeed)

The more recent/actual ones have a v good action and more standard dimensions. This may be simply just a little after 1991 but I believe it is later.

Regards

Possibly bass strings made on a harder steel can help (Mapes wire, probably what uses Ari Isaac (?)

SO take care of the hammer condition, , but if you like the touch - I think there is an accentuated whip effect with the shank/hammer (the hammer is oriented more toward the player than generally) that gives power easily, I dont really explain why. The motion of the hammer when it impact the string, possibly the shank is not allowed to flex much and reflects more energy.

Intermediate palette of power is less large than with the more usual mounting. Same thing is find on Foerster grands.

Regards

After all of the discussion about a particular piano which none of the posters have seen or played, I would like to refer back to my original response.



This piano could become a champ .... or .......

Hi Marty-
I hear ya
Tech evaluating today- hopefully some good news

Awesome, thanks Olek!

Update=
The tech just examined and called me-
Report:
The piano is very close to where it should be- also very clean.
The bass notes are a bit louder than the tenor
It has crown
Could use a tad bit more sustain though-
A day or two of voicing, action regulation, & string leveling should put the piano where I'd like it
Not really necessary to replace anything right now, but perhaps a few years down the road, possibly replace hammers & dampers & bass strings as necessary.
The Pianodisc system seems to be working fine, with the exception of one sticking key

I think I may finally pull the trigger:-)

I have a 1990 Petrof PII; it is labled "Renner Action". I had strings leveled (got rid of some harpsichord "buzzes"), and (l believe) had expert voicing and regulation done since purchase used last year. Piano is all original, and when purchased Jan 2013, it had so little hammer wear that it was difficult to see string grooves for voicing. It still has bright high treble (undamped), weaker volume above middle C, tenor is probably best sound, and if the bass is "thin" I need education. Phrygian or y'all may consider listening to my PII recording(s) on Soundcloud, especially the Rachmaninoff ( my first recording "test"). If the 1995 doesn't already sound better, the 1990 sound might indicate its potential (l like it! Good luck!)

https://soundcloud.com/pianosson

Thanks Doctor S! Just listened to your recordings- very nice-
I like kitty cat that can be heard at the end of one of them :-)

Great, thanks for the info, Olek!

That is the typical clear sound of the Petrof in the treble, it makes more difficult to tune the attack as the tone tend to straighten soon, but here, those are "Dead on pitch unison" (probably a bad listening mode from the tuner, that concentrated so much the pitch of each string that they fight themselves as soon you play a little stronger.

The attack of tone is not very thick on those pianos, (low iH) but here it is just absent, undefined.
That piano can do much better in my opinion.

Thanks for the recording

PS :It is difficult to tune perceived attack with that kind of tone because the tone "rebound" is very immediate, the projection is almot at the moment of attack , and that is the part of the tone we deal with while building the tone.

THe hammers seem to explode in the strings here. (They have been laquered on the crown a little also, possibly.)

WIth that type of tone, containing really enough partials, the ppp nuances should be long and "juicy" and saturation appear the later possible. The impact here is making a great disease between individual strings, that leave no much energy for tone projection and "life" .

Seem to me the tuner is playing too strong and its ears cannot hear the problem, because they "close" at attack time and listen to the tone only later.

In the nocture, at the beginning, you can hear as the tone is nice as long you use the left pedal, because only 2 strings are impacted. As soon the 3d strings come in play, it does not add nicely to the others but makes that acid attack tone that shows some energy is not well "driven" on the rails.
When the tuning ages it begins to be uneven and you can even hear beats , which do not really happen on a stable instrument. (not really in an annoying way)