Electric Piano Hire & Repair in London & The UK
Rhodes & Piano is a company founded by James Beckwith in 2023. We specialise in the hire, repair, and restoration of vintage electronic instruments. In particular Fender Rhodes pianos, Wurlitzer pianos, and Hohner Clavinets.
Our aim is to provide a bespoke hire service that focuses on delivering high quality hire pianos. From hiring electric pianos from several companies in the UK, it is apparent that these rare, wonderful instruments do not get the love they deserve. We want to offer the right electric piano for the right musician, which can only make their tour, session, or gig the best it can be. Our hire pianos are regularly serviced and maintined like concert pianos, and are sent out at the highest possible quality. This service is based in London but available throughout the UK.
We also provide a service and restoration service which aims to repair vintage electric pianos to a much improved condition. This could be a quick service or a full overhaul, depending on what the customer would like. We do our repairs in our SE London workshop, and send our more major electronic repairs to an electronics subcontractor.
Another one of our key aims is to educate musicians on the piano they have. Be it acoustic or electric piano, these instruments are perhaps the least well understood by their players. Our Workshop Blog aims to get people to understand the sound, mechanics, benefits and limitations of the instrument they play.
James is a freelance professional piano & keyboard player, and a piano technician. He trained to be a piano technician at Western Univeristy in Canada; and has a degree in Jazz from Leeds College of Music (now called Leeds Conservatoire). James worked for Steinway & Sons for a couple of years where he received further piano technician training, and tuned pianos for many concert halls, recording studios, and university institutions in London (Abbey Road, BBC, King’s Place etc.).
Since then he has been a freelance piano technician for 12 years. He currently maintains the all Steinway piano music deparment at Trinity School, and is the main piano technician at Saffron Hall. His love of electronic instruments and the Covid pandemic led to much time to explore the combined world of pianos and jazz, funk and groove music. This naturally led to the sound world of the Fender Rhodes, the Wurlitzer, and the Hohner Clavinet. James has used his piano technician skills (and some guides on electronics!) to repair and restore these instruments.
To see James’s original music and art compositions please visit his music website. And for piano tuning in London please visit his piano tuning website.
