For my first blog and to introduce the website blog feature I decided to address this dilema.
To many a piano is just a box with a keyboard that makes a musical sound, they can be found for sale really as cheap secondhand pianos nearly everywhere from EBay, Gumtree and facebook market place, often many places they being given away for free.
So with so many free and cheap pianos out there advertised as being in good working condition just needing tuning and collection, both which you need to arrange and pay for then why go to a shop or workshop to buy a piano thats a lot more expensive?
Theres a simple answer.
Like all musical instruments pianos are not cheap. They are complicated instuments made of tens of thousands of parts and require hours of skilled man hours to produce and the materials alone are not cheap. Restored pianos will have had months of man hours spent restoring them back to playing condition. the better makes use better materials and designs all costing more.
So the truth is a piano will never really be free as the first thing is you need to do is pay someone to move it, be it professional fully insured piano movers with the proper equipment or a cheap man with a van and hope it arrives in one piece, or a mate with a van and a few lads from work for a few beers.
Now your free piano has arrived in you home, it cost you £30 in beer for the lads and £75 to hire a van, you now need to book a piano tuner to come and tune it, (yet a decent shop will usually include all this in the sale).
When you bought the piano you actually did not know its condition, the assumption its in good condition was based on the notes playing, but are they playing as they should?. Many times I have gone to tune these pianos and have literally walked away as they were untunable or unplayable needing thousands spending on it.
having paid to get it moved and tuned only to be told its untunable you are looking to potentially spend up to £350 to have the piano removed and properly disposed off as pianos are chargeable waste, or you need to break it up and take the bits in your car, breaking up some pianos is far from easy and will ruin your grass, if in a flat you will have a huge mess to clean up.
You now know why the piano was actually being given away for free or sold very cheap, the previous owners did not want to spend that money on disposal or risk damaging their property breaking it up, so they moved it on to an unsuspecting buyer.
HOWEVER sometimes I find people took away a free or bought a cheap piano which was worth fixing, but it cost the same money, sometimes more than had they bought the same piano from a reputable source, these cases, the gamble paid off as they were lucky to get a really good piano. But had to wait whilst repairs were being done.
When you buy from a reputable shop (another blog to come) or from a restorer they already have done the work of finding the good pianos from the bad ones to work on, bringing them back to a decent standard before selling.
These pianos will have had the actions and keys fully checked over and serviced or restored, All repairs needed will have been undertaken and they will have have had several tunings to ensure they are at concert pitch and holding tuning properly. Some will then offer a warranty of some description on their work or the entire piano.
Buying from someone like myself saves you a lot of aggrevation, expense as well as disappointment.
I break the mould a little more though as not only do I restore pianos but I also play professionally in Londons iconic hotels and stores, many tuners, restorers even dealers do not play, but are fantastic at what they do, I also teach piano so when I select cheaper pianos to work on I am not just looking at it from a technicians perspective but also as a teacher understanding students needs as well as the needs of serious and professional musicians.
So yes of course naturally if you are looking to buy and piano and came across my website then I am going to hope you will buy a piano from me, after all lets be honest its the main purpose of this website. But the main point of this blog is not to sell you a piano, but to offer some sound free advice and hopefully save you money in the long run.
Heres my advise having had to tell people their piano from EBay or Freecycle etc is dead or needs lots of money spending on it. Ideally if possible buy from a piano shop, restorer, or uner directly, preferably not just a general music shop selling pianos as many just buy the pianos and put them up for sale having only had a tuning nothing else, some not even that. I will discuss types of dealers in another blog later.
If buying from a shop is too expensive and you do not wish to rent a piano then find a local technician, not just a tuner and take them with you to advise on the state of any piano you wish to buy and if it needs any work, theyll charge a fee, but it is worth it.
DO not rely on a piano teacher or pianist to advise you on a piano, I have visited many pianos recommended by reputable teachers and even top concert pianists which were again untunable and not worth working on.
Would you take a driving instructor, professional driver or your mechaninc to view a potential car you wish to buy?
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