Piano Tuning fees in the UK

[Barrie Heaton]

Taking to a few tuners up and down the UK there seems to be some large regional variations.

On the Dearest price listed below they tent to include VAT and tend to be shops. The prices are for regular tunings not a first time or pitch

So what are you charging or paying in your area ?

Barrie


Lancashire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£35.00 £65.00 £45.00

Cheshire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£48.00 £85.00 £55.00

Manchester
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£35.00 £75.00 £48.00

Liverpool
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£40.00 Na £40.00

Newcastle
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£42.00 £66.00 £50.00

Sheffield
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£35.00 £65.00 £50.00

West Midlands
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £75.00 £49.00

Wales
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£38.00 £65.00 £48.00

Bristol
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£41.00 £65.00 £48.00

London
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£25.00 £95.00 £55.00

Surrey
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£50.00 £95.00 £60.00

Sussex
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £60.00 £50.00

Norfolk
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£25.00 £55.00 £40.00

Gloucestershire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £45.00 £40.00

Essex
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £75.00 £40.00

Kent
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £56.00 £40.00

North Lincolnshire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£Na £45.00 £35.00
Added ....
Hampshire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£42.00 £75.00 £48.00



Added ....
The data was collected by asking ABPT members what they charge and if they know of anyone cheaper, to get the most common we used yellow pages to contact tuners in that area and pretended to be a future client moving in that area. On the Dearest this tended to be for a first time tuning or was shops adding VAT
we have been doing this for a few months


Barrie,

[mdw]

£25 in Nofolk FFS!!!!! Please tell me this the local cowboy diyer.

[Barrie Heaton]

£25 in Nofolk FFS!!!!! Please tell me this the local cowboy diyer.

No not a cowboy I was shocked as well has not put his prices up in 10 years

so what is the price in your county

Barrie,

[mdw]

£45 but it got to go up soon. Have you ever driven around Norfolk. Very pretty place but not if you need to get where you want to today. Seemed to be B roads and tracks where we went on hols. He must be retired or a kept man . Just to cover my council tax and car fuel bill every month I would have to do 18 tunings at £25 each.
Thats fine if he wants to run a charity for out of tune pianos but out of order for the other tuners in the area.

[jackg]

South Gloucestershire, north Bristol
First tuner I employed charged me £50 took two hours, lives in Bristol, 12miles away
Technician-tuner I used the once charged me £40 he is very good, 8 miles away
Current tuner colleague of the tech charges £38, takes an hour and is very good. 6 miles away.

These are all stand alone tuners.

[Celestite]

In 40 odd years of playing (ouch!) I have got through a fair few tuners, as you can imagine! The chap who looks after my 6'8 Bechstein is brilliant, by far the best tuner I have ever found and a jolly nice bloke to boot! He is Steinway trained, knows his stuff, travels absolutely miles and charges £43 a visit. He lives in Suffolk and comes to me and a fair few other clients in Essex.

[Openwood]

Not that the Channel Islands matter (Winston Churchill rather underlined the point in 1939) but I pay £40 for my local Guernsey tuner and £60 if I get a bloke over from Jersey - but then he does have to fly across.

[David B]

My local tuner in Kent charges £72, so your max Kent price is out.

I normally get someone who comes over from Sweden and charges 40

[Openwood]

I normally get someone who comes over from Sweden and charges 40

Very sensible. And what do you do when you need to get the piano tuned?

Openwood's wall of cheap gags crushes all in its path.....

[Celestite]

Mr Celestite wants their name and address, please

[markymark]

My piano tuner charges around £35 for a standard tuning, although I do know of tuners charging around £50 in Belfast.

Tssk.... those tuners!

[markymark]

I normally get someone who comes over from Sweden and charges 40

Didn't you feel the icy chill just then.... oooo...

[Celestite]

That's a new name for it!

[markymark]

Just don't reveal your surname, David B! Local Kent tuners may be out to get you if they find out who you are!

[mdw]

My local tuner in Kent charges £72, so your max Kent price is out.

All the Kent tuners ive spoken to are within Barrys bands. Just as a matter of interest what does he do for £72 ( keep it clean guys ). It must be more than a fine tune.
I spoke to a shop in Stuttgart last year ( on hols) and their price was £100 but included cleaning and regulation. They said it wasnt worth the effort for them just to earn the basic tuning fee. If you ever go to southern germany its worth a look, Fisher Piano shop. Knocks anything ive seen over here into the weeds.

[Barrie Heaton]

My local tuner in Kent charges £72, so your max Kent price is out.

All the Kent tuners ive spoken to are within Barrys bands. Just as a matter of interest what does he do for £72 ( keep it clean guys ). It must be more than a fine tune.

When I started this we contact the tuner once and now we are doing it twice with 2 different voices one is the price for a tuning about 10 miles away and one is for a few streets away, some give the same price others whack it up big time that may be why you have a price difference, what is quite interesting quite a lot of tuners don't know what the local tuners are charging when we asked them direct.

if you would like to say what your are paying or charging in your area you can PM me with a price and the area if you don't want to post it on here.


Barrie

[tuna]

I am based in the Republic of Ireland so all these prices are in euro.

In Dublin I know of a tuner who charges €150 and another who charges €130.

In rural Ireland the average seems to be around the 100 mark, although I know of someone charging 60, but he's a bit of a John Wayne and once he is at the customers house, more often than not, finds 'extra' work that is necessary and bumps the price up, sometimes by hundreds!

I charge 100 euro (inc vat @13.5%) 88.11 net for pianos within an hours drive, 120 if further away.

However, this will need to be reviewed if the diesel keeps going up

[PianoGuy]

That's roughly double what I charge in Central England.
I'm emigrating!

[Celestite]

Perhaps it's time I considered a career change!

[Gill the Piano]

Fifty usual fee for new customers; less for state schools, charity functions (if I agree with the charity!), churches or piano teachers, and for some families whom I know find it hard to make ends meet. Just call me Robin (with one b) Hood... Fifteen quid extra if I'm told to use a Tradesmen's Entrance (only happened once, so I said I was a craftsman, not a tradesman, and left. Charged extra when I went back following a satisfactorily grovelly apology... ) Often been tempted to add a non-beverage surcharge, but haven't. Yet...

[Barrie Heaton]

Often been tempted to add a non-beverage surcharge, but haven't. Yet...

an old tuner friend of mine added 0.25 if he did not get a cup of tea


Barrie,

[Gill the Piano]

Good man. Not enough!

[Barrie Heaton]

This was back i the 70s would be £5.00 now

Barrie,

[mdw]

Why is it some days they all offer you tea and other day nobody does!!!?

[Celestite]

They're frustrated bus travellers seeking revenge on their piano tuners

[Barrie Heaton]

Why is it some days they all offer you tea and other day nobody does!!!?

And that's the day you are gagging for a cupa


same with cash for weeks no one pays you in cash then they all pay you

There are other odd thing about this job you can go months with out changing a damper spring or whatever and then every other piano needs one that week


Barrie,

[Gill the Piano]

And if you're tuning during Wimbledon fortnight, they offer you tea/coffee, you wait ages because they're making it between sets, and when it eventually arrives, the black tea no sugar is milky sweet coffee...

[mdw]

The other good one is,
Would you like tea or coffee?
Tea please
Oh, ive only got GOAT milk as im allergic to cows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do you mind that?

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Yes Ive had just about every sort of tea with every sort of milk known to man and beast. Goat and soya milk YUK!!

We should be paid danger money in this job.

[Gill the Piano]

That's why I drink tea & coffee black with no sugar - self defence, see?

[mdw]

That's why I drink tea & coffee black with no sugar - self defence, see?

Chicken

[Celestite]

I hope my tuner appreciates the calibre of his customers then - he gets offered Earl Grey, Lady Grey (with cows milk or lemon) or builders tea, large or small mug, bone china on a really good day!

[Openwood]

I can't imagine anyone not offering their tuner a cup of tea. It's such a sad reflection on how people treat each other in Britain today. Bloody Thatcher....

[Celestite]

Absolutely. I have often been accused of being naive when I say I honestly cannot understand why we can't all just be nice to each other. The world would be a much better place if we just spent a nanno second thinking about the well being of the people around us. (Sorry, one of my soap box issues )

[Barrie Heaton]

That's why I drink tea & coffee black with no sugar - self defence, see?

its hard to muck up black tea but black coffee hmmm they do get that one wrong

I some time take my White tea bags you should try some white tea


Barrie,

[tuna]

Was given a mug of tea at one customers house that tasted really sweet, but not in a nice way.

I was told they didn't have normal milk, only rice milk.

How do you milk a piece of rice?!

They said not to drink it if I didn't like it,

It didn't get drunk.....

Normal milk please, and none of the instant coffee that tastes of chicory!

[vernon]

Advice for young piano tuners;
If you are offered refreshment take the following advice;
1)Say " yes please I'll take it now" . Not when you are finished and the table is laid with biscuits and the prospect of an hours 'chat.
2)If you are offered " tea and crumpet," view the possibilties with circumspection and some caution, espicially if you are catholic or muslim.
3)If this is your fourth call, locate the toilet early
4) If you are asked is there anything you fancy ( see 2)
5) If you are my age you say bring it on 2) and 4)

vernon ( aged 98)

[keithpeter]

West Midlands
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £75.00 £49.00

From Birmingham - I've just had a piano tuned for £45 all in. Took him an hour or so, but I'm just up the road from his shop.

It was his first call, so I spared him my coffee (awful - even worse than my piano playing).

[joseph]

scotland

Seems like you can pay anything from 35 to 75. I used to use this guy who was charging 50, and it seemed that the piano would stay in tune for ages. It also seemed that every other piano would sound slightly sharp.

He was tuning the blessed thing flat so the piano stayed in tune longer. SO NOW I HAVE TO GET THE @~#'@$ PITCH RAISED. I mean we're not even talking quater of a tone but its enough when doing a chamber music coaching to screw up things. Also sometimes he would come in and do a bit of a rush job and the bearings would be all wrong. Had a bit of an argument with him about the tuning and he said 'the octaves are in tune. . . ' yeah so what! I CAN DO THAT!

Now I get a tuner from Edinburgh who is very expensive but very good. I may be over paying but I like his work.

[genaa]

tuner I use in Hampshire charges £45 to come to me as I am on the extreme limit of his range - normally he charges £40 I believe.

as for drinks I always feel bad as we only drink Earl Grey tea and filter coffee at home so unless they like either of those it's either a "wierd tasting cuppa" or coffee so strong they float for the rest of the day hehe - no complaints so far however and we normally have at least one type of biscuit available, usually jaffa cakes hehe.

[Gill the Piano]

My friend only drinks Earl Grey. She had a patio built and at the end of day 1 she had a deputation from the builders who asked if they bought the bags, could they have proper tea please...?

[mdw]

at the end of day 1 she had a deputation from the builders who asked if they bought the bags, could they have proper tea please...?

[Bill Kibby]

In the nineties, when I was too ill to work properly, a local tuner offered me six pounds per piano to do his stock, and expected pitch-raising for that! He had no idea that a piano won't stay in tune immediately if you raise it a wholetone. His repairs were of a similar standard. Meanwhile, a famous London firm offered me six pounds per piano if I paid my own train fare into London from Suffolk! I quoted 48 pounds to tune a piano I was about to play in a hotel, and they got a young professional in who tuned it very well, but HALVED my price. Another hotel got another cheap tuner, there was no semblance of a scale, and all the F# were so badly out of tune I couldn't bear them. It's amazing how difficult it is to play for an evening without using F#!