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Barrie Heaton · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:09 pm Post subject: Piano Tuning fees in the UK

Taking to a few tuners up and down the UK there seems to be some large regional variations.

On the Dearest price listed below they tent to include VAT and tend to be shops. The prices are for regular tunings not a first time or pitch

So what are you charging or paying in your area ?

Barrie

Lancashire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£35.00 £65.00 £45.00

Cheshire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£48.00 £85.00 £55.00

Manchester
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£35.00 £75.00 £48.00

Liverpool
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£40.00 Na £40.00

Newcastle
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£42.00 £66.00 £50.00

Sheffield
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£35.00 £65.00 £50.00

West Midlands
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £75.00 £49.00

Wales
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£38.00 £65.00 £48.00

Bristol
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£41.00 £65.00 £48.00

London
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£25.00 £95.00 £55.00

Surrey
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£50.00 £95.00 £60.00

Sussex
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £60.00 £50.00

Norfolk
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£25.00 £55.00 £40.00

Gloucestershire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £45.00 £40.00

Essex
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £75.00 £40.00

Kent
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£30.00 £56.00 £40.00

North Lincolnshire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£Na £45.00 £35.00
Added ....
Hampshire
Cheapest Dearest Most Common
£42.00 £75.00 £48.00

Added ....
The data was collected by asking ABPT members what they charge and if they know of anyone cheaper, to get the most common we used yellow pages to contact tuners in that area and pretended to be a future client moving in that area. On the Dearest this tended to be for a first time tuning or was shops adding VAT
we have been doing this for a few months

Barrie,
_________________
Barrie Heaton
Web Master UK Piano Page

mdw · Persistent Poster Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 146

£25 in Nofolk FFS!!!!! Shocked

Please tell me this the local cowboy diyer.

Barrie Heaton · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:49 pm Post subject:

mdw · Persistent Poster Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 146

£45 but it got to go up soon. Have you ever driven around Norfolk. Very pretty place but not if you need to get where you want to today. Seemed to be B roads and tracks where we went on hols. He must be retired or a kept man Laughing

. Just to cover my council tax and car fuel bill every month I would have to do 18 tunings at £25 each.
Thats fine if he wants to run a charity for out of tune pianos but out of order for the other tuners in the area.

jackg · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:25 pm Post subject:

South Gloucestershire, north Bristol
First tuner I employed charged me £50 took two hours, lives in Bristol, 12miles away
Technician-tuner I used the once charged me £40 he is very good, 8 miles away
Current tuner colleague of the tech charges £38, takes an hour and is very good. 6 miles away.

These are all stand alone tuners.

Celestite · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:44 pm Post subject:

In 40 odd years of playing (ouch!) I have got through a fair few tuners, as you can imagine! The chap who looks after my 6'8 Bechstein is brilliant, by far the best tuner I have ever found and a jolly nice bloke to boot! He is Steinway trained, knows his stuff, travels absolutely miles and charges £43 a visit. He lives in Suffolk and comes to me and a fair few other clients in Essex.

Openwood · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:02 am Post subject:

Not that the Channel Islands matter (Winston Churchill rather underlined the point in 1939) but I pay £40 for my local Guernsey tuner and £60 if I get a bloke over from Jersey - but then he does have to fly across.

David B · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:41 am Post subject:

My local tuner in Kent charges £72, so your max Kent price is out.

I normally get someone who comes over from Sweden and charges 40 Cool

Openwood · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:07 pm Post subject:

Celestite · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject:

Mr Celestite wants their name and address, please Very Happy

markymark · Persistent Poster Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 173

My piano tuner charges around £35 for a standard tuning, although I do know of tuners charging around £50 in Belfast.

Tssk.... those tuners! Wink

markymark · Persistent Poster Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 173

Celestite · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:51 pm Post subject:

That's a new name for it! Wink

markymark · Persistent Poster Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 173

Just don't reveal your surname, David B! Local Kent tuners may be out to get you if they find out who you are! Laughing

mdw · Persistent Poster Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 146

Barrie Heaton · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:51 am Post subject:

tuna · Persistent Poster Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 74

I am based in the Republic of Ireland so all these prices are in euro.

In Dublin I know of a tuner who charges €150 and another who charges €130.

In rural Ireland the average seems to be around the 100 mark, although I know of someone charging 60, but he's a bit of a John Wayne and once he is at the customers house, more often than not, finds 'extra' work that is necessary and bumps the price up, sometimes by hundreds!

I charge 100 euro (inc vat @13.5%) 88.11 net for pianos within an hours drive, 120 if further away.

However, this will need to be reviewed if the diesel keeps going up Rolling Eyes

PianoGuy · Persistent Poster Joined: 21 May 2005 Posts: 1277

That's roughly double what I charge in Central England.
I'm emigrating!

Celestite · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:42 am Post subject:

Perhaps it's time I considered a career change!

Gill the Piano · Persistent Poster Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 988

Fifty usual fee for new customers; less for state schools, charity functions (if I agree with the charity!), churches or piano teachers, and for some families whom I know find it hard to make ends meet. Just call me Robin (with one b) Hood... Fifteen quid extra if I'm told to use a Tradesmen's Entrance (only happened once, so I said I was a craftsman, not a tradesman, and left. Charged extra when I went back following a satisfactorily grovelly apology... Twisted Evil

) Often been tempted to add a non-beverage surcharge, but haven't. Yet...

Barrie Heaton · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:07 pm Post subject:

Gill the Piano · Persistent Poster Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 988

Good man. Not enough!

Barrie Heaton · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:43 pm Post subject:

This was back i the 70s would be £5.00 now

Barrie,
_________________
Barrie Heaton
Web Master UK Piano Page

mdw · Persistent Poster Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 146

Why is it some days they all offer you tea and other day nobody does!!!?

Celestite · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:52 pm Post subject:

They're frustrated bus travellers seeking revenge on their piano tuners

Barrie Heaton · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:16 pm Post subject:

Gill the Piano · Persistent Poster Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 988

And if you're tuning during Wimbledon fortnight, they offer you tea/coffee, you wait ages because they're making it between sets, and when it eventually arrives, the black tea no sugar is milky sweet coffee... Rolling Eyes

mdw · Persistent Poster Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 146

The other good one is,
Would you like tea or coffee?
Tea please
Oh, ive only got GOAT milk as im allergic to cows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do you mind that?

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Yes Ive had just about every sort of tea with every sort of milk known to man and beast. Goat and soya milk YUK!!

We should be paid danger money in this job.

Gill the Piano · Persistent Poster Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 988

That's why I drink tea & coffee black with no sugar - self defence, see?

mdw · Persistent Poster Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 146

Celestite · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:06 pm Post subject:

I hope my tuner appreciates the calibre of his customers then - he gets offered Earl Grey, Lady Grey (with cows milk or lemon) or builders tea, large or small mug, bone china on a really good day!

Openwood · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:21 pm Post subject:

I can't imagine anyone not offering their tuner a cup of tea. It's such a sad reflection on how people treat each other in Britain today. Bloody Thatcher....

Celestite · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:30 pm Post subject:

Absolutely. I have often been accused of being naive when I say I honestly cannot understand why we can't all just be nice to each other. The world would be a much better place if we just spent a nanno second thinking about the well being of the people around us. (Sorry, one of my soap box issues Embarassed

)

Barrie Heaton · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:05 pm Post subject:

tuna · Persistent Poster Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 74

Was given a mug of tea at one customers house that tasted really sweet, but not in a nice way.

I was told they didn't have normal milk, only rice milk.

How do you milk a piece of rice?!

They said not to drink it if I didn't like it,

It didn't get drunk.....

Normal milk please, and none of the instant coffee that tastes of chicory!

vernon · Regular Poster Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 31

Advice for young piano tuners;
If you are offered refreshment take the following advice;
1)Say " yes please I'll take it now" . Not when you are finished and the table is laid with biscuits and the prospect of an hours 'chat.
2)If you are offered " tea and crumpet," view the possibilties with circumspection and some caution, espicially if you are catholic or muslim.
3)If this is your fourth call, locate the toilet early
4) If you are asked is there anything you fancy ( see 2)
5) If you are my age you say bring it on 2) and 4)

vernon ( aged 9 Cool

keithpeter · Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:46 am Post subject: Re: Piano Tuning fees in the UK

joseph · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:59 pm Post subject:

scotland

Seems like you can pay anything from 35 to 75. I used to use this guy who was charging 50, and it seemed that the piano would stay in tune for ages. It also seemed that every other piano would sound slightly sharp.

He was tuning the blessed thing flat so the piano stayed in tune longer. SO NOW I HAVE TO GET THE @~#'@$ PITCH RAISED. I mean we're not even talking quater of a tone but its enough when doing a chamber music coaching to screw up things. Also sometimes he would come in and do a bit of a rush job and the bearings would be all wrong. Had a bit of an argument with him about the tuning and he said 'the octaves are in tune. . . ' yeah so what! I CAN DO THAT!

Now I get a tuner from Edinburgh who is very expensive but very good. I may be over paying but I like his work.