Whenever you are at a professional piano concert, whether it is a recital or a concerto, do you ever wonder who has tuned the piano? Not only tuned it but set it up to a finite degree both mechanically and tonally.  In the case of many of New Zealand’s leading venues, the ‘piano technical’ team comprises Glenn Easley and Anthony Shaw. Having a combined 60 years in the piano business, they have served the needs of professional pianists, venues and orchestras across the world and tuned tens of thousands of pianos in regular households.

Over the years they have worked on the concert stage for the world’s great pianists: Alfred Brendel, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Murray Perahia to name just a few. Other greats such as Stephen Hough have been clients not only on the concert stage but in their own homes too. Now based in New Zealand, their client list includes many of our homegrown professional pianists as well as the majority of the country's leading music venues: the Auckland Town Hall, the Universities of Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury and of course the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

Glenn and Anthony's respective companies approach piano business from all angles. Of course, there is the day to day tunings in households across Auckland and the massive flow of work from the concert and recording venues, but they also service the pianos in concert halls as far afield as Singapore and Brazil!  If that were not enough, over the years, Glenn has founded Auckland Museum’s Fazioli International Piano Recital Series, co-founded the Rönisch Auckland Secondary Schools Piano Competition and has acted as a specialist piano consultant across the world.

The one aspect of the piano business that’s been missing from their portfolio until now has been piano sales. Particularly with more piano outlets operated by people with little or no understanding of the product they are selling, the advent of Glenn and Anthony's combined new business, the Auckland Used Piano Centre is a welcome addition to Auckland’s music scene and has instantly become the prime place for buying pre-owned pianos in New Zealand.

This new business has a very different approach to retailing pianos. Most importantly, it is run by technicians with a solid reputation for providing the highest level of technical service available to both professional and domestic clients alike. The other stark difference between the Auckland Used Piano Centre and other used piano dealerships is the instruments they are selling.  Although Glenn and Anthony often deal with European brands such as Steinway and Fazioli, the biggest demand in the domestic market is for Yamaha and Kawai; fabulous pianos, but so often in poor condition on the used market.

Although retailers may class used pianos as ‘A’ grade, that can simply mean that the casework is tidy even when the mechanics are completely worn out.  Such instruments are therefore far from what they initially appear, which is why Glenn and Anthony made the decision earlier this year to go overseas and look for better pianos themselves.  As with their experience with used pianos anywhere, they found that less than 5% of the 2000 pianos they looked at were actually ‘A’ grade in every way.

A genuine 'A' grade piano has immaculate casework, all action components including hammers, dampers, key bushings, among others in near perfect condition, and mechanically and tonally in great shape. Being able to find and select such instruments personally made them realise that this is the way forward for their new venture. As these pianos cost no more than others which are in relatively poor condition, it became apparent that by taking the time to go overseas and select themselves, they can consistently offer clients pianos in ‘as new’ condition. For around half the price of a new piano and around the same price as the general second-hand market, the Auckland Used Piano Centre offers the best value instruments available in New Zealand.

Unlike the majority of pianos sold second hand, all the pianos sold by Glenn and Anthony are fully serviced personally by them before sale. The regulation, voicing and tuning are all checked over thoroughly so every client can be sure that their purchase is as good as a brand new instrument. The combination of this technical service plus the time and specialist knowledge to personally select A1 pianos to retail are what separates the Auckland Used Piano Centre from the rest.

Have a look at their website www.aucklandusedpianocentre.com 

All enquiries to aucklandusedpianos@gmail.com