Welcome to the latest news update.
Welcome to the rather predictably overdue news update. I hope you have enjoyed the summer and continue to enjoy the fine weather we are having at the moment. After an enjoyable summer where we travelled through Scotland and stayed on the stunning Isle of Skye it is back to business as usual! Business as usual is an exciting prospect coming into the darker nights of autumn which is traditionally the busy season in our trade. This year has been both enjoyable and successful with a fairly dramatic increase in visitors to the showroom and pianos selected. Even the summer months have remained busy with many pianos being chosen and delivered to their new homes.
I cannot continue any further without mentioning the stunning Bosendorfer M200 grand piano that I eulogised about in the last update. It was an incredible instrument and admired by many in the few weeks that it spent in my showroom. The lucky recipient of this fine instrument was a very talented young pianist from Dorset who reduced Michelle to tears with his beautiful playing, his own composition too! Such a special piano and a truly deserving home where it is consistently being played and enjoyed for many hours each day. I am thoroughly looking forward to Wednesday of this week when I will trip down to Dorset to tune the piano and see it in its home environment. One of the very finest restored pianos that I have seen and one that will be remembered for quite some time. If anyone hears of an old M200 Bosendorfer for sale let me know, I would relish a similar restoration project….
The summer also saw the selection of our model M Steinway, another stunning restoration that replaced a restored upright Grotrian-Steinweg that I have looked after for our customer. This piano looks and sounds stunning in the home and was the piano of choice in the showroom for Michelle who was sad to see it leave. The great thing for me is that I often continue to see the pianos after they are sold which is always enjoyable and rewarding at the same time. The upright Grotrian sold as soon as it arrived, this too looks stunning in its new home and was the perfect choice of piano that happened to come in at the right time. Kawai grands have been especially popular this year with two more GX1’s going to new homes over the summer; the second one had been in the showroom for under an hour before being selected to go to a home in Surrey! Kawai uprights continue to be extremely popular as have the Grotrian-Steinweg range with Cristal, Friedrich and Carat models being chosen. I am currently absorbing the extra costs involved in buying these superb instruments from Germany following the vote to leave the European Union and the subsequent devaluation of sterling.
An interesting and impress new addition to our stock is the Haessler K-124 upright piano. The Haessler range of pianos are made by the prestigious German piano maker Bluthner in their factory in Leipzig. With the beautiful new model 6 Bluthner in our showroom I have long admired the quality and tonal characteristic of Bluthner pianos. The Haessler is of the same build quality and tonal characteristic and has exceeded my own expectations. This is not a badged piano made on behalf of Bluthner, this is a piano designed and built by Bluthner in their German factory. I chose the option to upgrade the action to a Renner action, as used in the Bluthner pianos, and what we have is a superbly made piano offering the warm rich tone associated with the brand at a reasonable price. I do not know of any genuine German made piano that can come anywhere near the Haessler at a similar price. With bespoke cabinets also on offer I am sure this is an excellent addition to our stock sitting between the Kawai and Grotrian-Steinweg pianos on price.
As we come into darker nights and the resumption of piano lessens after the summer break we already have many showroom appointments booked. Do come and visit us, call and make an appointment and we’ll be more than happy to see you, if only to take a peek at our showroom over a coffee, the more visitors the merrier! Michelle is flat out helping to run the business and enjoying meeting many new customers. Vicky, Richard and John are back tuning after their holidays and Neil is full of smiles after a break in France. On that note; a friend of my eldest son George was delighted to spot our company van in rural France over the summer! We have some fabulous pianos in stock with more on order and restorations coming through workshops, we love to show them off to as many people as possible.
All the best
Ben
