Montague Pianos

Sauter Pianos Hit Camden Town

2010-07-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

Montague Pianos showroom in Camden Town is coming along very nicely indeed, with a new shop sign designed and ready to be fitted, freshly varnished front doors and a showroom full of nicely prepared pianos!

We've recieved all three of our ordered Sauters and are very excited to have the most appropriate person to have them tuned and shop prepared.

SAUTER pianos are made with the greatest attention to detail using only the best materials. With this in mind it is only fitting to have the very best piano technician to perform our SAUTER setup and shop preparation. We are extremely proud to be have internationally renowned ex-Steinway concert technician Dietmar Assimis-Kohls casting his expert eye over every tiny detail.

Dietmar, completed his apprenticeship at the SAUTER factory in Germany in 1993. Since then he has built up some stunning credentials over nearly 20 years at the top of his trade. He is the piano consultant for The Purcell School of Music, Eton College and Morley College. Dietmar has regularly been appointed to tune the pianos at Wigmore Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, and for the London Symphony Orchestra. Amongst others he has been personally appointed by Nina Simone, Cristina Ortiz, Keith Jarrett, and Marc-Andre Hemelin.

We can confidently claim that we have the finest prepared pianos in the UK.

Royal appointments

2010-05-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

Celebrations all around as Montague Pianos get crowned the title of "South UK Importer" for the insanely classy "Sauter" Pianos.

It was with great delight that we confirmed our arrangement with Sauter to be the London and southern UK agent for them, and to kick things off, they're sending us three of their finest!

Infact .. we've already got the jewel of the Sauter crown here - the Masterclasse 122. It's the top of the range, no expense spared, no detail overlooked beauty that pianists worldwide rightly drool over. I could not love a human baby as much as i love this piano .. And I will put up some pictures as soon as I can tear myself away from playing it!

But as they say, there's no point in having a phone number if you don't tell anybody what it is ... nobody calls ... i know this! So we're running a little Ad here and there and thought i'd share it with you :)

Clement Pianos in Nottingham will be looking after Sauter in the North UK - They're great bunch of guys with a lovely showroom thats well worth making a journey to if you're up that way.

More soon

Lee

Showroom Showdown

2010-05-11T06:04:00.000-07:00

So we've moved some pianos to our Camden site, and we're making a virtue of the slightly industrial environment.

In a nut-shell, this means that our showroom will not be winning an interior design award, and it probably wont be getting the touchscreen holographic lazer displays and mood changing lighting that it richly deserves. There'll be no gently soothing water feature to relax you as you navigate our clearly marked customer aisle.

It's new meets old .. pretty meets ugly and suprize meets the obvious .. A real showdown!

But it's good..no better than that, it's perfect! - What do we really want from a piano shop anyway?

Will the decor of a showroom influence my decision as to which piano I'll be parting with my hard earned money for? .. I don't think so!
I think, when "I" go shopping for a piano - i'd like to see lots of pianos... available to play .. without annoying "please don't touch" stickers on. I'd like them to be nicely tuned and prepared.

I don't want a salesman dazzling me with buzz words and science!! I'd like to trust my fingers .. my ears .. and if i'm out furniture shopping, perhaps my eyes too.

With this in mind, I'm carefully selecting pianos to fill up my showroom, and only the best will do.

So far we've picked a few Toyo uprights and one Toyo grand - all being lovingly tuned and prepared by one of Londons finest piano technicians (I'm not sure if i can tell you his name - he's a very modest man), but I will take some work in progress photos to reveal the spectacular transformation.

Also the Latest gossip is we've been in negotiation with Sauter to become their London and Southern UK outlet for Sauter pianos - These are going to be something VERY special ... so more news as it devlops

Cheers

Lee

Toyo Central

2010-05-07T01:54:00.000-07:00

As the Toyo express train grinds to a steaming halt at Heckscher station, younger brother 'Montague' claps with delight as the portly station master yells "All aboard!"

Welcome to Toyo Town!

Having just made the flat out non stop journey from Japan to Camden, Toyo pianos are some of the best new pianos from the "far east" to hit the UK ... ever!

But what does "far east" mean exactly? - and are we still bashing the chinese for their old history of slightly dubious pianos? ... well not really, but there definately needs to be some clarification on this!

Toyo pianos are made in a mixture of chinese and japanese factories, by a mixture of chinese and japanese workers - however - Toyo is a Japanese company and therefor..

...All pianos made by toyo MUST conform to the Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) to get the little stamp of quality assurance ... much like our BSI, it's regarded as a better quality of workmanship (and you'd think twice about buying something without it)

So to draw todays blog to an end, Toyo Pianos are available to Buy in the UK, we forgive the chinese for their early pianos, and commend them for their recent effors - but Toyo is made to the Japanese standard ... so everyone's happy!

There's a website to take a look at, www.toyo-pianos.co.uk the pictures up there are a bit low grade, but they're probably working on that.

Did i mention the tone?? It's like a European piano!
...and they make wood finishes which is nice.... and they win awards for being the best.

If you'd like to look at some, put up a post, send me an email, give me a call or come to the shop - it's all good!

Lee

Hello - Who are we?

2010-05-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

As our very first blog post, it seems like it would be a nice idea to introduce ourselves.

Montague pianos are a long standing piano retailer traditionally based in Northchurch in Hertfordshire, but currently opening an additional retail showroom in Camden Town, London.

Since 1879 Montague Pianos has been active in the piano industry. We manufactured pianos in North London until 1939. In an era when a lot of pianos were built down to a price for a mass market, Montagues always took pride in building a better instrument.

After the war Tom Montague came into the family business, and by the 1960's the focus was on the retail and piano repair sides of the business which, by now, was centered on Crouch End in North London. Eventually Tom moved out of London and opened the shop in Berkhamsted where he ran a successful business for many years. In 1997 Tom retired and the business was taken over by Heckscher & Company, the long established piano trade supply house, who had been supplying Tom with piano stools and piano repair materials for many years.

Today Montague Pianos Ltd. continues as a thriving retail piano business. We select the best pianos, whether new or second-hand, and take great pride in preparing them to the highest possible standard. Our pianos are available for sale or for hire with option to buy.

If you'd like to talk about pretty much anything to do with pianos, either myself (Lee) or Martin would love to hear from you! Feel free to post piano related things here or give us a call on 01442 876131 or 020 7387 1735

If you're a bit shy - we also take email :) your email will reach us both on sales@montaguepianos.co.uk

More news soon

Lee
Montague Pianos