A Fresh Approach to a Traditional Instrument

For more than 38 years, Chris Venables has succeeded in supplying thousands of quality pianos to music institutions, concert halls, professionals and piano students. A key reason for this success is the bespoke setup, preparation and voicing service.

Making appreciable improvements to the tone and touch of these "off the shelf" pianos gave them the extra dimension and individuality that they lacked.

Building on this principle, using the feedback we received from a broad spectrum of artists, piano teachers and talented pupils, the logical step forward was to create Venables & Son pianos. The benefits from having the freedom to be able to select from individual designs, and our own component specification, such as hammer heads and soundboard materials are huge. The result is a range of affordable pianos with exceptional tone and touch as well as elegant cabinetry in both modern and traditional styling.

Our pianos have a broad, rich tonal characteristic with emphasis on purity, depth and sustain. The precision-engineered actions, crafted from quality traditional materials (no plastic parts) are medium-weighted, responsive and reliable.

Chris Venables

Chris Venables began his career as a piano tuner-technician over 38 years ago. Within the first year he opened his first piano showroom and soon became well-known for his progressive approach to piano retailing.

1984 saw the launch of the Chris Venables range of hand-finished pianos, followed shortly by John Broadwood and Sons awarding Venables the first licence in the UK to hand-finish their upright range to clients' specification.

In 2008, Classical Music Magazine wrote: "Chris Venables is an ambassador for new instruments and goes to great lengths to promote them. He summons up a truly missionary zeal to convince people they will get better value buying new... His success is due to the combination of an incurable passion for pianos with an entrepreneurial flair which is quick to see opportunities and act on them.". This statement applies as much today as it did then.

Having received technical training from both Steinway & Sons and Yamaha, Chris has prepared Concert Grand Pianos for EMI Classical Music, BBC Radio, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Peter Donohoe, John Lill, Peter Katin & Jose Carreras.

Will Venables

With over 18 years technical experience, Will is meticulous in his preparation of new pianos, specialising in voicing (hammer intonation) matching the piano's tonal qualities to the player and optimising the piano's expressive voice. He is responsible for quality control and set-up of each Venables & Son piano.

Your direct contact for Customer Service and Aftersales Support, Will also manages Sales and Marketing, including design of all promotional tools and information publishing.