Completely restored Steinway grands for less than half the price of new one.
Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, Yahama, Baldwin and all other makes of pianos. All estate pianos have been personally selected by Master piano Expert Steve Oliver.
Several of our customers ask, where do you get your used Estate pianos?
Our Estate Pianos come from a variety of sources many of them from affluent private estates in the N.Y.C, Westchester County NY, Fairfield County Ct., and Bergen County N.J. area. Many have passed on to leave their pianos to family members who cannot fit them or have no need for a piano. “Many of them were sold or restored by my Grandfather and Father” says Steve, we have been in the piano industry since 1911.
Why purchase an estate piano?
Many of our Estate pianos come from affluent homes. These clients had the budget to buy higher end pianos such as Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, Baldwin, Bosendorfer, Bechstein, Yahama. These clients were able to afford regular piano lessons and routine piano tuning and piano maintenance. The better regular tuning and maintenance , the more it will increase the life span of any piano. They will restore and rebuild better. This does not mean that one should buy from an estate without a qualified professional piano technician inspecting it first.
What to look for when buying an estate piano or used piano:
1. First you should play all of the keys to make sure that they all operate and there are no sticking keys and that they all operate smoothly with no unusual clicking or looseness.
2. Look at the soundboard to make sure there are no large cracks and that the soundboard is not loose from the ribs. On a baby Grand / Grand, you can look in from the top, a good trick is to have someone shine a drop light or flashlight from the top while you look for light through cracks from underneath. You can do the same on an upright by removing the bottom frame panel and shining a light in from the back.
3. Inspect the bridges for cracking and lifting (the strings go over the bridges and there are guide pins there). This is one of the more crucial area’s that is often missed. Hint: if some of the strings sound dead, tubby or buzz, the chances are the bridges are cracked or there is not enough crown.
4. Look from the top and inspect the hammers for excessive wear. If the hammers are flattened down at the front and no longer tapered then they have excessive wear and will need filing or replacement.
5. The most important item is the tuning pins. If the tuning pins are loose the piano will not hold tune and this equates to a car with a bad motor, IT WILL NOT WORK without major repairs. This will be more difficult for the lay person to check without a tuning hammer and some experience. My suggestion is to try to find out the history of the piano when it was tuned last, again difficult since many instruments are neglected. A good way is to ask the piano tuners name, if someone has been taking care of their piano they should know his/her name immediately, if they hesitate or don’t remember there is a good chance that it hasn’t had any tuning or maintenance work for a long time, you may want to walk away or hire an expert!
Value
There is much to be said about the quality of the older hand built American builds. Better select hardwoods, slow grown cold climate solid Sitka spruce soundboards, rare veneers and better overall parts that were allowed to dry naturally. Today everything is kiln dried and has a tendency to warp and shrink, especially the action parts. Many of today’s pianos (just about all) are using plastics in their actions, I am not a big fan. Solid brass hardware and chrome hardware and stronger screws and bolts are also part of the great quality of these instruments.
The good news is, you can still purchase one of these Hand built Estate Pianos, restored for less than a new Chinese piano of far less quality. Many of these featured estate sale pianos are still in good enough condition that they do not need re-building. We have seen many that have gone several decades and still play, once re-built or restored they will go another hundred years.
- Whatever your choice is, we can provide you with the best value for your dollar. We do all of our own piano moving, piano tuning, piano repairs piano rebuilding and restoration. We also do custom refinishing. Our work is the finest in the area and second to none!
- REFERENCES: unlike many companies who post tons of testimonials (most of them are not verifiable) we will supply real references that you can speak with. Check out our Angie’s list ratings also.
- If you really want to be a conservationist, and help our environment then purchase an older American piano. They can be re-cycled to be like new. Think of how much is going into the landfill. You will be helping the rain forests and tress. It has taken a lot of rare wood, rare veneer, metal, copper and hardware to build one of these instruments why let that go to waste?. You think plastic bottles leave a big footprint? Ever see how big a five to ten foot concert grand is? Seems a big waist if it can be saved, not only that but a lot of money can be saved on the purchase of one.
- New pianos of today will take more trees, today of inferior quality (fast grown), and more metal, iron, steel, copper and brass. And now with lessor quality kiln dried soundboards, plastic parts and finishes, These newer generation pianos will not be the heirloom pianos of yesteryear nor will they last anywhere nearly as long. Ask any Old World Piano Craftsman.
