Etude / Razno Russian piano

[yayayaya]

Hello to all..

So this is my problem...

I have just bought a piano from a private seller in Bulgaria, all the haggling and whatnot was done over the internet since they lived so far away from me, but today the piano has arrived.

My question is this: she told me the piano is a brand called Etude (this is spelt with the cyrilic alphabet) and she also told me it is a Russian piano. I have not been able to find anything on the internet in regards to a brand of piano called Etude.

As i was inspecting it i found another marking that says Razno on the top right corner of the plate. I can also find nothing about this brand name anywhere on the internet, so I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about it. I am not a classically-trained pianist or anything but I have spent the last few years teaching myself, unfortunately I dont know a great deal about pianos, and especially not russian pianos.

Anyways..if anyone knows anything about what my piano is, the information would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks
me!

P.S. I can upload a pretty bad quality picture of the etude sign

[Bill Kibby]

Most of my own research is immersed in the 1800s, but perhaps someone involved with the modern piano trade can answer you. I certainly have heard of Razno in the old USSR, and some entries on the net are for Raznoexport, but there are bits and pieces on google. Etude is not a name I know.

[Gill the Piano]

I tune one. Not a bad instrument once I managed to get it in tune - reasonably stable. Not wonderful, but not bad either.

[dancarney]

I did some work on one just a few days ago. Different name, but put in same place on the fall (also in Cyrillics).

Odd shaped hammers that were VERY fluffy (should have taken a photo). The hammers in the upper tenor/lower treble sections seemed to be very long and thin... Also around 5 loose hammer shanks that needed to be re-glued into the butts. And around 15 that needed to be re-mated with the strings.

Played much better with a bit of TLC.

[ity10]

Etude pianos have been manufactured by the music instruments factory "Etud-Ural" in Yekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk) in Russia (this is next to Ural mountains). The factory was built in 1963 and was manufacturing, apart from pianos, guitars (most dreadful bass guitars "Ural" - played one at school when I was 12), frames for grand pianos and the like.

The Etude pianos are quite common in Russia, fairly cheap too. Old ones are perceived to be better than the new ones, also the sticker "Razno" means that this was made for export before the collapse of the Soviet Union, which means that the quality of the piano would be good (you see, in Soviet Union the items for export were made with care, the items for internal market were simply awful as the concept "customer care" simply did not exist).

I am not surprised the Bulgarian seller has a "Razno" version - Bulgaria was receiving export pianos, so this would be one of the better ones.

I hope this helps.

[yayayaya]

thats exactly what i was looking for!

thank you to everyone who gave some information..its good to hear all of it.

The piano tuner arrives in a few days...and even though its out of tune...i already love my etude :)

cheers everyone

[Gill the Piano]

Brilliant; I know summat today as I din't know yesterday, as they say!
Your comment explains the dreadful casework on a Petrof bought in Czechoslovakia; nothing wrong with the instrument, but the casework...!

[bluestaff]

Hello everyone!

I'm about to buy a used 20yr old Etude piano, in a good shape, from a very good friend of mine who is selling it. As she has no idea of the value of the piano, she asked me to do some research on the brand of the piano on the net to suggest a price and, after a long search, I found this very helpful post on this forum! So, with your experience, how much do you think would this piano worth?

Thank you!

[Bill Kibby]

Nobody can guess the value or condition of a piano without inspecting it and tuning it.

[bluestaff]

Of course, I can understand that. I'm having a technician come in and tune the piano for her anyway, but I was wondering if anyone could give a rough estimate on the price of this particular brand, as I've found no other info about it. I even doubt that the technician I'm bringing will know the brand!... So, if the piano is in a good condition, what price range are we roughly talking about here? I don't want an exact price, just a range and an overall feel. Like, is it an expensive brand like Steinway and Bosendorfer or is it a completely obscure one where its best model barely makes it to a 4-digit number? I think you get the point of what I'm asking here... Thank you!