UK Piano Page Piano Forum

MarkGoodwinPianos

Thanks chaps, I hope you are all doing well :) These days my sister and my wife (both pianists) are the frontline of the business. I sort of wait in the wings to help out with the bits that I'm best at. And when I'm not doing that I'm very busy down at the park making various animals out of wet sand...

MarkGoodwinPianos

We stand by our pianos and we have many happy customers :) When people ask us to price match the cheaper dealers we request that they visit both dealers first. At that point, the customer normally wants to buy from us. I've always found this to be a reassuring sign. To the original poster I would re...

MarkGoodwinPianos

When customers sometimes ask me why I'm more expensive than some other dealers my reply is always to strongly recommend that they visit both dealers and they will get the answer they wanted. Always visit if you are confused about any differences in price, quality or service Failing that, at the very...

MarkGoodwinPianos

Very true. Make sure you have the option to reject the piano that arrives if it doesn't sounds right

MarkGoodwinPianos

Great news. Well done to the dealer for looking after you so well

MarkGoodwinPianos

You also asked about pricing. Tell both dealers your situation, you are considering 2 different pianos from 2 different source. Ask them to let you know their bottom line based on a full settlement within 7 days. Depending on their stock levels and cash flow situation you might get a fare bit of mov...

MarkGoodwinPianos

I agree with mdw
If this was on my patch I'd be happy to take other piano along and let you compare both pianos in the same room, one at once before making a decision. I wouldn't even charge any delivery for that. All my efforts would be making sure you made the right decision for your needs.

MarkGoodwinPianos

I once conquered the first page of that piece. I've lost it now though of course. Apparently the rhythmic opening section comes from a time when machines large industrial machines were beginning to be used in factories. You can imagine a large machine when you hear the opening couple of lines can't ...

MarkGoodwinPianos

Rushing the easy bits and playing slow through the hard bits. You'll soon find it impossible to play the whole piece at one steady speed if you do that.

MarkGoodwinPianos

If you upload some photos of the inside and outside of your piano I'll take a stab at a rough valuation for you. For an accurate valuation pay a local tuner £30-£60 to inspect it and write a report for you.

MarkGoodwinPianos

Don't take the bait Colin (easier said than done!)

MarkGoodwinPianos

p.s. Bill please don't delete my post above. The OP mentioned the word "worth" which frees me up to talk about money

MarkGoodwinPianos

As to whether the individual piano is worth restoring, you would have to ask a technician to inspect it on the spot. However, it is safe to say that from a return-on-investment point of view, the vast majority of non-famous brand pianos are very much, absolutely, completely, undoubtedly NOT worth r...

MarkGoodwinPianos

For the past 3 or 4 years I've used www.pianospeed.com exclusively and can honestly say they are the most communicative, professional, efficient, polite, strong, experienced, committed piano movers I've ever come across. They all have university degrees and are very well spoken. Maybe that doesn't m...

MarkGoodwinPianos

I agree with Barrie that it's unlikely that the bass strings have been changed. I generally advise people to stay above 120cm in height so that you have a good chance of getting some good tone, resonance and nice bass presence due to the longer strings and larger soundboard. The Yamaha U series cert...

MarkGoodwinPianos

Do what Colin says ASAP and then if everything is fine GET IT QUICK!!
However, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

MarkGoodwinPianos

I've suffered a few slurs on here lately haha

MarkGoodwinPianos

Blind valuations are my forte

Has there ever been a court case anywhere on planet earth involving a blind valuation of a straight-strung over-damped Berry.

I'm not going to argue about this. I'll just carry on as I've never yet had an OP accuse me of being rude.

MarkGoodwinPianos

Thanks chaps.
It could have been yes markymark.
But wherever it was, I only commented about value if it was relevant to the requests made by the OP.

MarkGoodwinPianos

I'm a forgetful sort of chap so perhaps I'm imagining things but have some of my posts been deleted lately?
I remember giving some advice about the very low value of some very poor quality pianos that were being asked about.

Cheers

MarkGoodwinPianos

It's amazing how many wealthy families will buy 3 posh cars, a huge house, 4 posh annual holidays, a posh new kitchen etc etc BEFORE they will consider upgrading the house piano even though their kids are on grade 4 or 5.

Come on parents of the UK. Get your priorities in order!

MarkGoodwinPianos

Whilst checking ebay I found this offenbach for £200,000!!!

I'm amused by the left hand movement at the final couple of seconds of that video on ebay

MarkGoodwinPianos

sussexpianos wrote:I have never been asked to vaucum a piano when I have turned up to tune, the customer does this while I am trying to work

Brilliant!

MarkGoodwinPianos

That is a great reply from Colin.
If you are looking for a valuation it is likely to be between £0 - £50

The big killer is the straight-strung and overdamper situation

MarkGoodwinPianos

If you do upload photos make sure you include some photos of the inside so that we can see the hammers and strings and stuff like that

MarkGoodwinPianos

If you want your Son to learn piano you need to either get rid of this piano or buy an extra piano. It would be really nice to keep this piano because of its history but it will never ever EVER do any justice to your son learning on it. It may force him to quit due to the poor quality. Get a nice re...

MarkGoodwinPianos

I agree with Colin and Joe.

Just take the original price paid, divide it by 4 or 5 and you've got your ebay price

Joe has got the private sale price about right.

I'll give £1000 if you email me at markgoodwinpianos@gmail.com

Whatever you decide to do, good luck

MarkGoodwinPianos

If it was just called "The Lounge" it might attract more general chatter. The presence of the word "Piano" always makes me think you are still supposed to be talking about pianos in here. But yes, if it's just in here then maybe it's had it's day. Maybe forums have had their day....

MarkGoodwinPianos

haha, you'll have to upload that middle C recording to youtube. It could go viral! The lesson to learn is if you can't afford a proper piano just yet, WAIT! Don't get a cheap one, don't get a free one, don't get one from freecycle, just WAIT and SAVE UP! I'd say spend an absolute minimum of £500 but...

MarkGoodwinPianos

The wife would love one of those!

MarkGoodwinPianos

Based on zero research I'd take a wild stab in the dark and say that the piano has nothing to do with Yamaha but the dealer who originally sold it stuck their standard shop sticker on which they got from Yamaha because they were authorised Yamaha dealers.

I could be way off

MarkGoodwinPianos

The golden rule is: if you like it, buy it... ignore everyone else

MarkGoodwinPianos

Excellent topic. Excellent input. Excellent sharing of info to help a forum member Well done chaps! But... I can't help but add that I'd love to hear a video/sound recording of this piano being played. It's a straight-strung (oh no!) overdamper (oh no oh no!!) so I just can't help but think that if ...

MarkGoodwinPianos

Loving that photo Colin!
what are the metal bars for underneath the bulbs do you think?

MarkGoodwinPianos

I've seen stickers like that. The phone number is sometimes different which makes me thing it is just the sticker from the original Yamaha dealer who sold the piano when it was brand new.

MarkGoodwinPianos

Just a few points from me: - Don't dip below 120cm in height. If possible go for something 130cm or higher so that you get a nice rich sound that will rattle your rib cage (in a nice southing way) - Visit pianos. Then visit some other pianos. Then visit some other pianos elsewhere. When you find the...

MarkGoodwinPianos

Colin/Gill, Many thanks for your coherent feed-back. Your comments noted. Great self-restraint shown there. There's no way I could have resisted biting back at Model V there :lol: Some customers expect more than others. Some folk would LIKE you to vacuum behind the bottom panel whereas other custom...

MarkGoodwinPianos

£1 no reserve on ebay gets my vote

I used to list pianos worth £3000 for £1 no reserve and was never too upset at the results

MarkGoodwinPianos

At the end of all the research you could possible do you only really need to conduct 2 tests before buying it: 1. Play it for 30 minutes and make sure you are in love with it. Don't settle for "this will do". Make sure you get one that grips you as you play it. You want to be able to "...

MarkGoodwinPianos

All day, every day haha Neck deep in nappies. Little one is trying to do the old "roll over" trick 8ft to my right as we speak. She'll need to let go of that foot if she has any hope! I've been taking time out to join in with all the days out and shopping trips and injections and weighings...

MarkGoodwinPianos

Merry Chrimbo one and all

MarkGoodwinPianos

We currently have a very rare one of a kind 1918 Steinway Model B art case piano available for the first time. This piano was commissioned with Steinway & Sons and Schmieg,Hungate & Kotzian art case piano artisans by world renowned aviator, oil baron, yachtsman, car racer and businessman Ha...

MarkGoodwinPianos

I was listening to your "first compo"
It's a very good start I think. The challenge is to create an interesting left hand part so challenge yourself to mix that up a bit next time perhaps?

MarkGoodwinPianos

Poor quality spammer. You'd think they'd take more pride in their work than to just copy & paste from website. You can picture them in a room full of 50 other spammers working on cheap little webbooks in India with a boss man training them to copy & paste vaguely related text to forums all o...

MarkGoodwinPianos

Muscle Museum was a big song for me back at uni 10 years ago. It hasn't translated very well to piano in my opinion and I'd find it very very difficult to learn the piece from looking at the rolling MIDI score, even with the keys highlighted like that. It's much better if people can just learn to re...

MarkGoodwinPianos

Are there pianos in Norwich?
I heard they were still on harpsichords!!

MarkGoodwinPianos

Tom Gill is near ish
enquiries@tjpianos.co.uk

As is Paul Clarke
http://www.devonpianos.com/

MarkGoodwinPianos

mdw wrote:The Silent one if you live in an apartment simply to keep you on good terms with your neighbours.

My thoughts exactly.
Also it sounds like it has a known history which is always nice.
Take a technician to have it tuned and then BUY IT!

MarkGoodwinPianos

A technician who is busy AND expensive is USUALLY a very good one.

MarkGoodwinPianos

Yes many piano shops advertise a January sale. Whether the sale is genuine or not is another question

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