Roberts Pianos Oxford - Portsmouth

Over 100 top quality modern and traditional grand, baby grand and upright pianos always in stock. New upright and grand pianos by Wendl and Lung. Secondhand restored upright and grand pianos by Steinway, Yamaha, Bluthner, Bechstein, Grotrian Steinweg and Knight.

We have piano shops and workshops in Oxford and Portsmouth, tuning in London, storage facilities and our own dedicated piano removers.

NEWS AND INFORMATION updated May 2008

Oxford shop (click for stock)

Portsmouth shop/workshop

Oxford workshops & store

Expert piano removals

Piano Restoration

Over 30 grand pianos and 60 upright pianos currently in stock. Grand pianos include Bosendorfer, Bluthner, Bechstein, Steinway, Lipp, Broadwood, Wendl & Lung, and Yamaha. Upright pianos include Bechstein, Steinway, Knight, Lipp, Welmar, Wendl & Lung, and Yamaha. Used Yamaha pianos comprise about 40% of our stock. Please see stocklist.

Boudoir Grand and Baby Grand Pianos

Over 30 new and secondhand restored boudoir grand and baby grand pianos for sale, including a fine rosewood Bosendorfer baby grand piano, a similar Bosendorfer in black, two 5ft baby grand pianos and 5ft 5in baby grand piano by Bluthner, a 6ft 3in Bluthner grand piano, a Steinway model O grand piano, three Yamaha G3 grand pianos, a Yamaha C3 grand piano and a Yamaha C7 small concert grand piano. Please see stocklist for photos and details.

Upright Pianos

Over 70 new and secondhand restored upright pianos for sale. Traditional restored upright pianos include a Grotrian Steinweg, a fine Richard Lipp inlaid case piano with sconces, and teo model 9 Bechstein uprights. English traditional pianos include a Chappell, Challen and Broadwood. Modern pianos include a Fazer, Welmar, three Knights and a Kemble Nordia. We also over 20 top quality used Yamaha pianos in stock, both U1 and U3 models

Types of piano

Grand and upright pianos for sale can be divided into two main categories - traditional and modern style. The best traditional English and German pianos were made from about 1895 to 1940. (Some traditional style makes like Bluthner and Welmar were excellent through to 1959 and beyond.) The best modern style pianos were made from 1960 to 1980. After that the philosophy of cheap mass production gradually took over, and instead of making a piano to last, a huge quantity of new pianos are now produced, few of which can be successfuly reconditioned, and many of which soon develop problems. It follows that buying a top quality older restored piano from 1890 to 1940 or a little used modern piano from 1960 to 1980 is often the best choice, and certainly preferable to a cheap new one. With a budget, say, of £3000 it is much better to buy a top quality little used second hand upright piano than a new one, even if the new piano is heavily discounted, and with £7500 to spend on a grand piano, there are excellent second hand ones that are far superior to a heavily discounted new one which may officially retail at as much as £12,000. Please see our other web pages for more details information.

Best Makes of Piano and other information in brief

(updated 24th December 2007)
There are over 10,000 names of pianos. Our "further restoration" page has a list of the most common secondhand ones available in the UK, with a rating out of 100. Pianos are almost unique in that their mechanical design has hardly changed for over 120 years. Spare piano parts are in 99% of cases identical to the original. A top quality older grand piano, when new, would often have cost as much as a house! Expertise ran high until after the second world war when the piano trade began to thin out.

Used Yamaha grand pianos and Yamaha upright pianos

About 40% of our stock consisits of top quality used Yamaha grand and Yamaha upright pianos. These are little used and any tuning and reconditioning is done to perfection. They were mainly made from 1965 to 1989, when Yamaha were trying to impress the world with a consistently high quality of manufacture. Later Yamahas upright and grand pianos vary considerably. Please see our Yamaha page for details of specific models of Yamaha pianos.

Comparison between a top quality European piano and cheap mass-produced one.

As an example of the care taken in manufacture of a top quality European piano, Grotrian Steinweg today use the finest timber in the soundboard construction on their new pianos. Bavarian Alpine Spruce is felled when 200 to 350 years old and then dried and cured for ten years before use! This cannot be done cheaply. Mass produced cheap modern pianos vary but generally use relatively un-cured pine or plywood. The soundboard is the most important constituent, being the engine of the piano, but the same contrast in quality is reflected in the whole manufacturing process. If you would like further information, please see the restoration and advice pages.