28th April 2010
It has been a very exciting and busy few months for us since I last wrote. We have enjoyed welcoming many new customers to our showrooms.
Second hand pianos are always much sort after and tend to sell very quickly. They often don't make it to our web pages before they sell but we try to update the site as often as possible. We currently have a fantastic Kemble 116 that has just come in and as I write hasn't sold!
The Schreiner & Sohne pianos have once again been in great demand and have currently sold out. We are waiting for the next batch to arrive and will display them as soon as possible. Wendl & lung also continue to be a popular choice with the 122 model a particular favourite
Kawai pianos continue to be very popular with all models selling well, both uprights and grands. We now stock duplicate models in different colours and finishes to give even more choice to customers choosing one of these fine pianos.
The long awaited Grotrian Steinweg pianos arrived and the truly exceptional Studio 110 sold twice in the first week of arriving! These fine hand built German pianos give an incredible performance and have been admired and enjoyed by many of our customers.The Carat is on reserve with another Studio and a Cristal on order from Germany.
The latest and most exciting news for the business is that we have been appointed an Official Bluthner Piano Centre. I personally cannot begin to say how delighted I am by this development and the opportunity to stock pianos from this prestigious piano maker. Bluthner approached us as a suitable business to represent them and we accepted without hesitation. I have always greatly admired these pianos and the warm rich tone that they produce. We currently have three on order, a model 6 grand and models C and D uprights which are due in soon. We cannot wait to receive them...
Since opening the new showroom back in september the business has gone from strength to strength. With Bluthner on the way 2010 is proving to be a very exciting year...!
Best Wishes
Ben
6th January 2010
Happy New Year to all of our customers!
As we start 2010 Neil and I are both looking forward to an exciting year ahead with the business. We have been delighted by the positive response to the bigger showroom and broader selection of pianos. Both of us have thoroughy enjoyed welcoming customers to the new showroom, have met some wonderful people and heard some fabulous, and not so fabulous, piano playing!
We are working closely with our chosen manufacturers to make sure that the high standards that we expect from the pianos is maintained. Some of the individual models in our showroom that stand out as particularly good examples at the moment are the K6 Kawai, the 123 Schreiner & Sohne and 122 Wendl & Lung in black with chrome fittings.
We are expecting a British made Kemble Conservatoire to be delivered in soon. This is a piano that has proved very popular with our customers in the past and I have enjoyed working on very much. It has been much publicised in the national press that Kemble Pianos are going through a transition period with the sad closeure of the British factory and relocation of manufacturing to Indonesia. We will be keeping a very close eye on the quality of the pianos over the coming monthes before renewing our commitment to stocking Kemble Pianos in depth.
January should see the long awaited arrival of the Grotrian Steinweg pianos. Local piano teachers can expect an invitation to come and view these superb instruments when they are in. These incredible pianos inspire great piano playing with a depth of tonal colour that cannot be explained in words but is so apparent when played! We are excited about receiving these pianos in to say the least!
As I write this we are snowed in with about 16 inches of snow outside. I managed to get around to a few tunings today by push bike which proved to be precarious to say the least! I will be walking to a few tunings tomorrow, then onwards to the showroom to work on pianos that have just come in or are due out soon. As ever, Neil and I will welcome any visitors once access is a little less prohibited by the snow and ice.
Best Wishes
Ben
28th November 2009
Another great month for us at Ben Wheeler Pianos.This has been our busiest month of the year and busier than any November since we started in business!
Over 30 of the impressive Schreiner & Sohne pianos arrived with us in October and the last grand is due for delivery to a local family just before Christmas! We have just two uprights left, a 110 in polished black and a 123 in polished walnut. The popularity of the pianos has once again delighted us and confirmed what a great value for money piano they are. As I write this I look forward to seeing a Schreiner & Sohne grand piano on the set of the live X factor television programme. More of these popular pianos are on order and we expect them to be with us in February.
Our Kawai range of pianos continue to be very popular too. We are expecting our next GE 20 in on Tuesday, this time in polished walnut which looks fabulous. This week a customer chose a K5 which was a beautiful piano. As with all of our pianos I had spent time voicing and regulating the K5 and it was a particularly fine example of this impressive piano. Next one is on order and due in soon.
We are still awaiting our first Grotrian Steinweg but they are on order and will be with us soon. The best things are worth waiting for!
We have also just ordered a Wendl & Lung 178 grand piano. We have supplied the uprights in the past and have been incredibly impressed with the build quality and individual warm tone that they produce. Our favourite model, the 122 universal, has a fabulous bass and we have stocked these consistently for a few years since they first took the UK by storm! The 178 will be our first grand from the Austrian firm and should herald the start of our renewed commitment to stock various models from this young and innovative team of piano builders.
Our used upright stock has been severely diminished during the last month with the £1000-£1500 pianos in great demand. We are always on the look out to replenish our supply! We have taken in two beautiful reconditioned uprights, the Squire & Longson and Bechstein featured on our used upright page. Both are extensively reconditioned in every sense of the word and are wonderful examples of fine quality pianos restored to the highest level. We have also taken in a few restored grand pianos that haven't made it to the web page! A small Challen came in on Thursday and was sold by Friday! We do have a 4'11" Yamaha A1 grand piano due in this week which has been privately owned and is only about 5 years old, a great buy for someone looking for a secondhand 'baby grand' in absolute immaculate condition.
The new showroom has made way for a fantastic few months and we are greatly encouraged by the initial success. We continue to thoroughly enjoy the business, take great pride in the standard of our pianos and look forward to meeting new customers. As we approach the Festive Season it is worth noting that we will be closing on 23rd December and opening again on 4th January 2010!
Best Wishes
Ben
28th October 2009
We are delighted by the response to the opening of the new showroom. We are pleased to have sold more grand pianos than uprights during the last month! The Kawai GM10, GE20 and GE30 have all proved to be very popular and consistently offer exceptional performance at a very competitive price against similar quality pianos
We have just taken delivery of the Schreiner & Sohne pianos and have already sold one of the grands. Once again the build quality is extremely good and we are delighted to be agents for this brand. The latest 123cm upright in polished walnut is wonderful!
News that we are incredibly excited about is that we have just been appointed official agents for the fabulous Grotrian Steinweg pianos! I had a meeting in Reading, at very short notice, with Konrad from Grotrian and discussed our businesses in detail and discovered our views to be very similar. We were recommended to Grotrian as a suitable dealer and Konrad confirmed, after our meeting, that we fufill the criteria required to stock the pianos and offer the kind of sales and technical service associated with this prestigious brand. I have long been an admirer of the Grotrian piano, putting it as one of the best pianos made in the world today. We have ordered the first of these exceptional instruments and eagerly await their arrival.
It has been, and continues to be, a very exciting time for our business. As always, we welcome any visitors to our showrooms.
Best Wishes
Ben
21st September 2009
The big news is that we have expanded. We have been delighted by the success of our upright piano showroom over the years and felt the time was right to expand the business. We have recently taken on an additional showroom to offer a larger choice of uprights and stock a selection of grand pianos! The new showroom has just been fitted, and pianos are now rolling in! We will have every model from the Kawai and Schreiner & Sohne upright ranges and at least two grands from each of these fine manufacturers as well as pianos from other manufacturers. There will be a launch day planned for local music professionals to show off our new, impressive stock levels, more details to follow. There will also be special offers on many pianos to celebrate our opening. Our original showroom has been retained to be used to house used uprights and a workshop area.
The web site is still under construction with more images to be added and additional information on all Schreiner & Sohne pianos
The next delivery of Schreiner & Sohne pianos are due with us at the beginning of October after we quickly sold out of every single piano in the range! We are working towards more regular deliveries of these fine pianos with our increased floor space enabling us to stock a larger amount of pianos.
This is an incredibly exciting time for the business and both Neil and myself are relishing the challenges ahead. The first pianos have been sold from the new premises and we look forward to meeting new faces to our showroom in the future.
Best Wishes
Ben
