Services which Fords Music Centre provide:

All tuning, repairs and regulation of pianos.

Valuation service for replacement or insurance.

Technical inspection service before private purchases.

We have excellent technicians to repair most brands of electronic instruments.

Excellent restoration of pianos organs and pianolas also available.

Our carriers can move your piano or organ anywhere with great care and prompt service.

YOUR GUIDE TO BUYING A USED PIANO
© Fords Music Centre

Buying A Used Piano privately can be dangerous and costly. What appears to be a rare bargain may prove to be a real liability. Unless you are a piano expert, your best assurance is to rely on the judgement of the most experienced dealer in your area with a proven record of integrity and fair dealing.
It is unwise to pick up an old piano privately to "get started with". A poor piano offers discouragement to the child or student, and is at best a questionable investment for the purchaser.

Here are just a few of the many danger areas encountered when a non-expert piano buyer buys from a private party.

1. Plate (or steel/iron frame) may be cracked (even hairline) or broken which cripples the piano musically, rendering it useless.
2. Strings - bass strings may be "tired & tubby" totally devoid of tone. As they are usually hand wound, replacements are expensive.
3. Sounding board - the "loudspeaker" of the piano, may be cracked or worse yet, lost its crown to become tonally deficient.
4 Ribs - may be broken or pulled away from the soundboard.
5 Bridges - may have lost proper bearing, be broken, cracked or split, requiring dismantling the piano-a major expense
6. Tuning pins - may be loose meaning the piano will never stay in tune, or have been previously "doped" to hold them firm for sale, may require oversized pins, may require new pin block. Avoid like the plague any piano with pins that appear to have been pounded in by hammer !!
7. Pin block - may be split or cracked, requiring very expensive replacement. As this is a hidden structure, only a very experienced expert can tell.
8. Actions - have 3000 moving parts and may be literally worn out, rendering the piano useless. Many used pianos from music schools (particularly from Japan) have this condition. If re-bushing is required, it is very costly. An expert requires substantial time to repair and re-regulate an instrument, and it is very expensive if done correctly.
9. Hammers - may be worn out, damaged, or improperly shaped (very common) and all this requires replacement at substantial cost.
10. Trap work - The internal leverage system of the expression pedals can need complete overhaul.
11.Refinishing - Many people learn to their sorrow that refinishing, relacquering or repolishing a piano is NOT a home handyman's task. It is the exclusive domain of a highly skilled and experienced artisan with the right ability, equipment and supplies. Good refinishing work is very expensive.