Eavestaff Mini-piano: How good are they?

[JimR]

I have been offered a cream-coloured, English-made Eavestaff Mini-Piano for around A$750 (= 300 GBPounds, approximately).

I have heard that this model piano isn't very highly regarded ("high maintenance" is the comment .... meaning that it requires frequent tuning, I suppose).I am wondering whether anyone can give me any further advice. How good are they? How bad are they? It looks in good condition. I am considering purchasing it for my young-adult daughters to use in their small home, as a practice-piano. I don't expect it to be as good as the Yamaha we have.

Any advice would be much appreciated ..... thanks in advance

[PianoGuy]

They're generally rubbish, although there is an aesthetic argument for buying an original coloured one (ie not a repainted one) and an economic argument for buying one of the last Miniroyals, the ones with the 'Festival of Britain' style metal-rodded music desk..... But only if it's dirt cheap and working perfectly. This Thread will highlight the better and worser models.

[Bill Kibby]

Yes, it's not so much a matter of "high maintainance" as whether it can be done at all. At this point, I feel the need to spring hastily to the defence of the 1969 Miniroyal, which is one of my favourite low pianos, but there are lots of different models, and the bac-action ones with tuning under the keyboard are the most problematic. However, to the buying public, they have the same charm as a square piano, something the trade would do well to remember.

[Gill the Piano]

The ones with the tuning pins under the keyboards are the ones we tuners dream about after a heavy cheese supper...

[delphine]

Hi I have just joined and would like some advice on selling my Eavestaff mini piano. It is 50 years old and in very good condition.

I have no idea of price or how to go about selling it. Any advice is very welcome please

[Bill Kibby]

Neither have we! No-one can assess your piano without seeing it first-hand, and you need a tuner to check that it is tuneable before proceeding with any discussion about whether it is saleable. "Very good condition" is a fairly meaningless term unless you can supply detailed accounts of the tightness of every tuning pin, the state of the soundboard, downbearing etc..

[PianoGuy]

Click on the blue coloured link in my post above to find out whether you should burn it, bury it, dump it in the Thames or sell it to a limp-wristed aesthete in Brighton for far more than it's worth as a piano.

Most fall into the first three categories in my experience.

[MarkGoodwinPianos]

I'm quite a big fan of the Eavestaff Minipiano Pianette as pictured below



You can here a sound sample of the above piano being played (badly) by me at the below page:
Eavestaff Minipiano / Pianette

However, I suspect most people in this topic are talking about this model:


This model is nowhere near as good as the first photo I posted but it still serves a purpose for some people. Not everyone wants a piano that is capable of hammering for 2 hours per day. Some folk just want something they can tinkle for 20 minutes per week. I find the eavestaff minipiano is capable of that job. I had one in my living room for a year and it served me very well

[Barrie Heaton]

You can here a sound sample of the above piano being played (badly) by me at the below page:
Eavestaff Minipiano / Pianette

Tuning them first helps

Barrie,

[vernon]

hope you don't get the smallest problem with. A simple job, even replacing a tape end generally entails dismantling the whole thing on the front room carpet. I won't touch them.
For the under the keyboard wrest pins that's 70 years old. Even worse are the ones you tune at the back as it needs 2 people.

[PianoGuy]

hope you don't get the smallest problem with. A simple job, even replacing a tape end generally entails dismantling the whole thing on the front room carpet. I won't touch them.
For the under the keyboard wrest pins that's 70 years old. Even worse are the ones you tune at the back as it needs 2 people.

You tune from the front, but wedge from the back. they give you backache, but one person can easily do it.

The one in the top pic is tolerable, the one in the bottom pic is junk unless it's in a cool casework colour.

[Brumtuner]

I've tuned pianos where the pins are at the back, they're a doddle compared to the ones which have the wrestpins protruding beneath the sustaining pedal spring.

[Barrie Heaton]

For the under the keyboard wrest pins that's 70 years old. Even worse are the ones you tune at the back as it needs 2 people.

You tune from the front, but wedge from the back. they give you backache, but one person can easily do it.

I refuses to tune them any more but when I did I never wedged them no need only 2 strings per note be-time you have faffed about getting the back off you could have lade a scale with no wedge

Barrie,

[Nikki A]

I have just got one of these Eavestaff minipianos so I was quite upset to hear how unpopular they are! Do tuners charge more for doing jobs they don't like?

[vernon]

first find a tuner who is unwise enough to take one on.
The wrest pins that protrude both sides of the wrest plank are generally loose and, of course, cannot be knocked in- otherwise they fall out!

I've got a genuine eavestaffe minipiano stool if you want one, tho' it's walnut, not the mahogany illustrated

[Nikki A]

Thanks for the reply. I will pluck up courage to approach someone soon. The piano is for my young son who is 7, he is well pleased with it so that is the main thing.

[Descombes]

Thanks for the reply. I will pluck up courage to approach someone soon. The piano is for my young son who is 7, he is well pleased with it so that is the main thing.

I am sure he will be thrilled. The piano I started on cost £5 (some decades ago!), but I thought it was wonderful. It took me up to about Grade 5/6 without any problems. I'm sure your new piano is far superior to that one!

[mdw]

Just make sure you change it as soon as you are sure hes going to carry on with the piano as an honest point of view from a tech and probably most teachers is they are grotty pianos.
I did think about making this statement but decided that its more patronising to be nice about it than to tell you the truth. New pianos are soooooooooooooo cheap now and 2nd hand pianos so cheap as well that nobody shoul learn on pianos like that. If your budget wont reach an acoustic then a bottom of the range digital would be better than the eavestaff and just bin it after 2-3 years when you buy a good acoustic.

[Descombes]

Just make sure you change it as soon as you are sure hes going to carry on with the piano as an honest point of view from a tech and probably most teachers is they are grotty pianos.
I did think about making this statement but decided that its more patronising to be nice about it than to tell you the truth.

I was not intending to be patronising when I said that Nikki's son would be pleased with the piano. As teacher I don't mind when a pupil says they are practising on a piano which is less than perfect. What I dread is a child saying they have a "keyboard" at home. If it really is bottom of the range then it will have small keys, so any ideas about teaching the feel of intervals, etc can be forgotten. There will also be limited scope for playing sensitively or with much tonal variation. I genuinely feel that the most basic of real pianos is better for educational purposes.

[PianoGuy]

Just make sure you change it as soon as you are sure hes going to carry on with the piano as an honest point of view from a tech and probably most teachers is they are grotty pianos.

That's about the size of it. OK (if tuneable) purely for learning where the notes are. Not one for serious study at a level anything above AB Grade 2!

[mdw]

Just make sure you change it as soon as you are sure hes going to carry on with the piano as an honest point of view from a tech and probably most teachers is they are grotty pianos.
I did think about making this statement but decided that its more patronising to be nice about it than to tell you the truth.

I was not intending to be patronising when I said that Nikki's son would be pleased with the piano. As teacher I don't mind when a pupil says they are practising on a piano which is less than perfect. What I dread is a child saying they have a "keyboard" at home. If it really is bottom of the range then it will have small keys, so any ideas about teaching the feel of intervals, etc can be forgotten. There will also be limited scope for playing sensitively or with much tonal variation. I genuinely feel that the most basic of real pianos is better for educational purposes.

Ive probably worded that wrong, I agree that almost anything is better than a small keyed keyboard however some pianos can be so bad that I end up recomending a basic £300 digital rather than them. Im a tuner who retails new and nearly new acoustic only so I realy dont want to be saying that but I do because of some of the crap I am asked to tune and bring back from the dead.
When I point out its limitations and am met with "Its only for little jonny to learn on" my eyes glaze over. I am not a snob, in any working day I can be tuning anything from the dreaded pins below keyboard eavestaff ( yes I will do them) to a brand new £60K piano and all in between. But I also see the kids who give up quickly as the piano sounds and plays very poorly. Pianos are as cheap now as they have ever been, ask a local tuner/ dealer and they may be able to help with something thats not a great seller but i too good to scrap.

[PianoGuy]

Pianos are as cheap now as they have ever been, ask a local tuner/ dealer and they may be able to help with something that's not a great seller but is too good to scrap.

Absolutely.

I don't know what national prices are like, but in my area, some very decent '70s/'80s pianos with unfashionable cases go for low hundreds. Here's a quick guide to a real piano for the price of a meal for four at Claridge's. Including wine.

The best bargains are to be had are Welmar, Danemann, Knight and Chappell/Kemble dating from 1955 to 1985. Some of these were styled very mundanely and hold a bit more value because they're decent sounding and inoffensive to look at, but the real bargains are the unpleasant modernist experimental cased versions by Danemann and Welmar.

I have recently tuned a 1964 Marshall and Rose (Welmar) with the profile of a G-Plan sideboard, a Bentley Studio and Danemann both apparently modelled on Daleks and a clutch of ex-school Danemanns inspired by WW2 armoured personnel carriers. All were excellent little pianos for the small-beer paid, and one of the Danemanns has since been repolished by a skilled DIY-er to a lovely honeyed oak colour which I even had to remind myself it was ugly before I started to admire it. Splash a bit of extra cash and a wonderfully unfashionable, under-rated and gorgeous-sounding Danemann Classic 118 could be yours, and a bit more buys a well cared for Chappell H or Kemble Classic (the earlier 85-note job). The latter can still fetch brave cash at a dealer's because it's a decent quality 85-note compact piano that will fit into a small space or go upstairs out of the way. The Danemanns are the real stars here, because they're desperately unfashionable, slightly awkward looking but perform as well as anything this side of a Yamaha U1.

Bargain basement cheapies should be treated with caution because only a few quid more buys you something better. These include Bentleys with the "Richard Harley" action which are really the lowest of the low and mainly becoming a liability now, and the Barratt & Robinsons with the "Kastner Wehlau" action which works well but can be noisy. Zender compacts are generally appealing for their compactness alone and any East German, Polish, Czechoslovak thing from the dark days of the iron curtain should be accepted only if it's very cheap indeed. Brands include Zimmermann (best of a bad bunch) Fuchs & Möhr, Rönisch, Eisenberg, Petrof, Calisia, Legnica. There are countless others. Avoid anything made in the USSR no matter what name's on it.

If you buy right, you shouldn't lose money when you come to upgrade either.

[mdw]

[Here's a quick guide to a real piano for the price of a meal for four at Claridge's. Including wine.

Clardges!!!! I obviously work in the wrong part of the piano trade!!!!

Teak can be amost imposible to sell for a dealer as it screams 70s. I used to buy them in at a price which allowed me to strip and respray them in a nice medium walnut or antique cherry colour and they look as good as new. Stick the full repolishing price on top and they would sell quickly. Leave it as teak colour and they sat about for ages. So look for a teak one privatley , get a tech to check it over (£40 ish) and pay low, job done. Then later on get it resprayed if you want to.

[PianoGuy]

Teak can be amost imposible to sell for a dealer as it screams 70s.

Ah yes!

I forgot to mention that! I was assuming all would be in teak (except the School Danemanns which were all light oak) so add fifty quid for mahogany finish!

[mdw]

With those big school danemanns if you cut 11/2 " off the front of the toes and move the leg back and flip it upside down it can make them look halfway decent ( along with a nice med walnut/ oak colour change). If its for home use reducing the depth wont make it to unsteady as the toes only came to the front of the keyboard to make it extra steady for school use.