Toyo Made Piano

[daffadav]

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone had any views or advice on purchasing a second hand Toyo piano. I am looking at a Toyo made "Fritz Kuhla" badged piano. The seller says it is about 20 years old, and that it was fully restored at 10 years old. This seems a bit odd to me. Is it possible a piano would need restoring after such a short period? They are asking $1500 aus. Any views will be greatly appreciated.

[Colin Nicholson]

Please send us a couple of photos of the piano.,

1, the whole piano
2, front panel removed/ photo of mechanism & strings....

then we can comment

if possible, a list/ invoice of the work done for restoration.

[Barrie Heaton]

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone had any views or advice on purchasing a second hand Toyo piano. I am looking at a Toyo made "Fritz Kuhla" badged piano. The seller says it is about 20 years old, and that it was fully restored at 10 years old. This seems a bit odd to me. Is it possible a piano would need restoring after such a short period? They are asking $1500 aus. Any views will be greatly appreciated.

They are made in Japan, only seen a few second-hand imports and both were very close to a Yamaha U1 in quality New one are imported into the UK by Heckscher

As to the recon bit... well blow out a piano with compress air and regulate it and you can say its been "fully restored" Sad but true. I would ask what they have changes and why.

As to price; your local tuner is the best person to ask and ask them to give it the once over

Barrie

[Colin Nicholson]

Is this an online auction piano (eg Ebay) ??

Depending on the 'seller' (i.e. private/ trade/ tuner/ retailer) .... anyone can sell a piano, but its more difficult to sell than buy. Wording in adverts often becomes "sick bucket" and overdone. I have seen a Toyo on the Oz ebay today in Mahogany, and after 10 mins of advertising about string length/ beautiful tone/ "much sought after" (PLEASE!!) advertising.... the last line said "IT NEEDS TUNING" !!! .... some sellers slip up!

so the moral is....

Pay the extra to get someone to check it over - if you are prepared to pay around 1.5K, I always find it amazing that no one is prepared to pay another (say) $100 - $140 to get it professionally checked over. If its a piano shop/ private seller, ask what has been "restored" - afterall, if its only 10 years since, all receipts should be kept.
Never buy a piano blind/ unseen/ unheard/ untouched.

A piano of that age may have a few tuning issues (loose tuning pins) - depending on the climate in Oz. I tuned a Steinway model A in NSW, and had a few loose pins in the bass.... piano kept in about 30 degrees of heat.

Many decent pianos still look good inside, and 'pass' in appearance.... clean hammers/ nicely aligned/ shiny strings.... "ah well, we might as well say its been fully restored" .... watch out for that - wording is never guaranteed, unless there is paperwork with it, and all signed & stamped.

Hope that helps