Month: June 2025

For more than 160 years Hickies Music has helped generations of Berkshire musicians find their piano. Today our ground-floor showroom at 153 Friar Street, Reading RG1 1HE houses a hand-picked range of refurbished uprights and baby grands, each regulated and voiced by our own technicians before it reaches the shop floor. Whether you’re ready to purchase outright or prefer to start on a flexible rental, every instrument here is tuned, warranted and ready to play.

Why Choose a Pre-Owned Piano?

A seasoned spruce soundboard simply sings in a way that a factory-fresh instrument cannot. As wood matures the tonal response deepens, giving you a warmth and sustain that players describe as “already broken-in”. Buying used also stretches your budget dramatically—you can often step up a whole model tier for the same money—and it is the most sustainable way to own a premium acoustic instrument.

Of course, quality varies in the second-hand market, which is why Hickies does the hard work for you. Our technicians perform a complete action regulation, check key bushings, re-voice hammers where needed and stabilise pitch at A-440. Only pianos that pass this inspection earn a place on our shop floor and carry our three-year parts-and-labour warranty. All the romance of a vintage piano, none of the uncertainty.

Our Current Stock & What to Expect

We keep around 25 uprights and 4-6 baby grands in stock at any one time. You will usually find:

• Yamaha U1, U3 and B-Series uprights – the teaching-studio standard, famous for reliability.
• Kawai K-Series – a slightly mellower Japanese voice ideal for home practice.
• One-off European gems from Petrof, Schimmel or August Förster, each with distinctive character.