Piano firm still striking right note after 50 years
A MUSIC business which has provided pianos for maestros including songwriting legend Burt Bacharach and slapstick comedian Norman Wisdom is celebrating more than 50 years in business.
Pianos Cymru, based in Porthmadog, has also set up its instruments for Bryn Terfel, Shirley Bassey and Michael Ball, and every year provides up to 20 pianos for the National Eisteddfod.
The business that began with a van and two pianos in the early 1970s has now swapped its 4,000 sq ft warehouse for a unit on the Penamser trading estate and a 40ft unit on the nearby new Lock Stock Self Storage park and is still going from strength to strength.
Every year its expert piano tuners bring over 1,000 pianos across Wales and England up to concert pitch.
It’s a far cry from where it all started five decades ago.
Pianos Cymru grew out of a Welsh bookshop, Siop Eifionydd, founded by Ian Jones’ parents Robin and Rene and an aunt in 1971, and they added acoustic guitars and small musical instruments to the items for sale.
Pianos Cymru proprietor Ian said: “Then an old lady from Pwllheli came in and asked if we sold pianos and my dad said he didn’t but he was sure he could get one, so he spoke to a local piano tuner who put him in touch with a piano factory in London.
“He ended up going down there in a little van and managed to put two small brand-new upright pianos in the back and before he left London he phoned my mum to say he was starting off on the long journey home.
“But Mum gave him some good news – the lady next door wanted one too so he brought back the pianos and sold both of them. He always says that’s the best journey he ever made.”
Pianos Cymru supplied pianos to its first Urdd Eisteddfod in 1982 and has been supplying the National Eisteddfod since Rhyl in 1985, sometimes taking as many as 30 pianos and delivering to various venues for the qualifying competitions as well as for the main stage.
It has also worked regularly for the Llangollen International Eisteddfod where it has provided pianos for Burt Bacharach, Michael Ball and others.
Ian, who took over the business from his father, a still sprightly 87, said: “Piano tuning is a real skill – there are over 8,000 moving parts in a piano.
“I was chosen to study at a specialist piano tuning college and did a three-year apprenticeship in tuning and rebuilding pianos.
“I’ve been out on the road tuning pianos for over 40 years, although now we have a younger piano tuner doing a lot of my work, Gerwyn Murray, who is phenomenal and is out every day providing a service for our 3,000 tuning customers.
“We also have a fleet of hire pianos including that big concert piano and we provide them for weddings and other events – basically we deal with anything to do with pianos. There is a real skill in moving pianos, as you can imagine – a lot of people buy them and find they can’t then move them. Even a small upright weighs two or three hundred pounds.”
The firm now shifts pianos to venues far and wide.
They include uprights, electric pianos, grand pianos – stored on their sides – and the mighty monster concert grand, 9½ft long and weighing three-quarters of a ton, that is wheeled on to the National Eisteddfod stage every year.