25.6.12

Out of the mouths of babes...


A wonderful conversation between Lewis Eady Music School teacher Dom Blaazer and one of his 6 year old students...

Mister Blaazer, do you play with Don McGlashan?
Yes Max.
I like Miracle Sun. Are you on that?
Er, no Max but I've played it with him a lot.
(Dom plays intro)
How about Anchor Me?
No Max, I'm not on that one either. But I've played it with him a lot.

(Dom plays verse)
Mister Blaazer, which ones are you on?
Have you heard of Marvellous Year?
Um. No... but Anchor Me made him get famous, didn't it?
Yes Max, it sort-of did.
Oh yeah, I really like How You Doing, that's funny. Toy Factory Fire gives me nightmares though.

Dominic Blaazer teaches guitar, ukulele and keyboards for Lewis Eady Music School at St Leo's Devonport, Takapuna Primary, St Michaels Remuera and Ponsonby Primary Schools.  He currently plays for Don McGlashan, The Reputations Soul Revue and The Trains.


19.6.12

'Cool' Guitar Vids


Every now and then we come across some cool bits of promotional videos which transcend that annoying selling to you bit, and are just plain cool. Here are a couple of those videos.

Alhambra guitars are a range of Spanish made classical and steel string guitars brought in exclusively by Lewis Eady Ltd. http://vimeo.com/38564130

Fender guitars need no introduction. A few years ago when we looked at adding an electric brand to our retail shop there really was only one choice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MnylRaQC3w


Come into the Lewis Eady guitar showroom to check out these quality guitars ‘in the wood’.

Post by David Love




13.6.12

Second hand pianos - the good the bad and the ugly



If I had $1 for every time I heard the phrase “Old piano for sale - just needs a tune”, I would be able to retire by now.
If somebody said to you “50 year old car for sale - works fine just needs a service”, you would probably be slightly more skeptical!
However there are more moving parts subject to wear and tear in a piano action than in a car.

As I have mentioned before, pianos - like us and cars - have a life time and that life time is dependent primarily on three things:
  1. The quality of the piano in the first instance
  2. How well it has been maintained 
  3. How much use the piano has had

If considering a second hand piano, there is quite a bit to take into consideration, and remember, if you buy privately you don’t get a warranty and you are not covered by the consumer guarantees act. So be cautious and do your homework.

Here are some basic rules that should be observed:
  1. Check the brand and serial number of the piano and give us a call at Lewis Eady Ltd to determine the age.
  2. Never buy a piano over 70 years of age, no matter how nice it might look. There are some obvious exceptions such as Steinway.
  3. Spend $80 on getting a qualified technician (not your husband’s second cousin who once played the piano) to do a report on the piano. This could save you thousands of dollars.
  4. Remember that Trademe is a wonderful place to pick up bargains as well as other people’s junk.
  5. Be very wary of Japanese made pianos over 30 years old and in particular of used Japanese imports. These should only be purchased from reputable companies that carry out the service work and offer a comprehensive warranty.
  6. Factory warranties are NOT transferable and only apply to the initial purchaser.
  7. Do your research on the Internet to find out if the piano you are looking at is good quality. Quite often they were bad when they were made.

I have never bought or traded a second hand piano that didn’t require some sort of service work and on the odd occasion that I have purchased ‘sight un seen’ without getting our technicians to check it out - I have been burned.
Then guess what - we sell them on Trademe with no warranty!

If in doubt, please call us at Lewis Eady Ltd. Yes, we sell pianos however we are also more than happy to offer any advice you need and can at the very least suggest a good technician to view the piano or movers to shift it.

Lewis Eady blogs about pianos in general and in particular Steinway pianos are our passion.  New Zealand Pianos specialist Lewis Eady have been passionate about pianos since 1884.

7.6.12

So you have decided to buy a ‘REAL’ piano for your family?





















Where to from here?
Essentially you have two choices – New or Second hand. If only it was that simple!

A decade ago it was relatively simple...

Imagine if you will a 'Pyramid'...
At the very top - of course - you had Steinway underneath which was the remainder of the European brands such as Bechctein, Schimmel, Grotrian, Sauter etc.
Underneath these you moved down the pyramid to the Japanese made pianos such as Kawai and Yamaha and finally at the very bottom were what we referred to as PSOs (or Piano Shaped Objects - not to be confused with real pianos).
Of course, this structure is entirely relative to the value, cost and performance of these instruments and the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ is very relevant in the world of pianos.

Ten years on and whilst the number of piano manufacturers has almost doubled, the quality structure remains very similar.
A Chinese client of mine explained it quite succinctly to me. He said, that a Japanese manufacturer will look at a Steinway piano and say, “I am going to try and build a piano as good as that.”
Where as a Chinese manufacturer will look at the same piano and say, “I am going to build something that looks like that.”

The emerging ‘new world’ manufacturers as yet, simply don’t have the experience or the skilled technical and design workforce to build quality pianos. This is changing rapidly and no doubt in a decade’s time the situation will be quite different. In the mean time we are their guinea pigs.

The other common misnomer put out by many ‘new world’ manufacturers is that they source their parts from well known overseas companies and simply ‘assemble’ them in their factory.
A piano is NOT like a car - 'quality is not determined by single properties, but by their interaction' and therefore a piano is a reflection of the standard of its designer.

New will always be best, however for many this is a financial impossibility. Next week we will look at 2nd hand pianos and what the pitfalls are.

Lewis Eady blogs about pianos in general and in particular Steinway pianos are our passion.  New Zealand Pianos specialist Lewis Eady have been passionate about pianos since 1884.