JULY 2009

RESTORATION
We are currently taking on restoration work for the summer. If you'd like your piano restored, we will lend you one to use while we are restoring yours. Please ask for a qoute.

Top pianos currently in stock:
Grand pianos: two Bluthner style 7 grand pianos, Bosendorfer 170. Other Grand pianos by Bechstein, Lipp, Broadwood, Steinway Wendl & Lung, and Yamaha.

Upright traditional pianos include a two fine Richard Lipp uprights, 4 Bechsteins, a Gors and Kallmann and a top quality Chappell. Modern pianos include 2 Knights, 3 Welmars and about 15 Yamahas. New uprights by Wendl and Lung and Yamaha.

Please see the stocklist .

OVER 100 PAGES OF INFORMATION

OVER 100 PIANOS IN STOCK

Over 30 new and secondhand restored boudoir grand and baby grand pianos for sale.
New pianos by Wendl and Lung.
Restored grand pianos include a fine mahogany Bosendorfer baby grand piano, a Vienna style Bosendorfer (standard action), a 5ft 7in baby grand piano by Bluthner, Three style 7 and 8 Bluthner grand pianos, a 6ft 6in Kawia grand piano, a Steinway model B grand piano, three Yamaha G3 grand pianos and a Yamaha C7 concert grand piano.

Please see stocklist for photos and details.

Over 70 new and secondhand restored upright pianos for sale.
New pianos by Wendl & Lung and Yamaha.
Traditional restored upright pianos include a fine Richard Lipp, a Bechstein model 9 and tww and a 10 Bechstein upright. English traditional pianos include a Cramer and Broadwood. Modern pianos include a Welmar, two Knights and a Rippen. We also have about 6 Yamaha U1 pianos and 6 Yamaha U3 pianos.

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  Welmar and Bosendorfer 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.

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.

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.

There are a few european piano makers, such as Wendl and Lung, who are working in partnership with Chinese factories to produce good quality pianos.
If you would like further information, please see the restoration and advice pages .