Piano restoration is our 'grass roots'. From 1910 - 1963, Louis Markson (our founder) specialised in restoring upright and grand pianos for sale to the piano retailers to then sell to the public. With his sons, Keith and Maurice he quickly established a fine reputation for quality workmanship and this attitude continues through our Company today. Restoration as a descriptor has now expanded to cover a much larger scope than it historically used to. Nowadays a piano can be described as having been restored if in some cases it has just been cleaned up and all the notes play. At Marksons, we keep our descriptions seperate and distinct :

Restoration to us means that the piano has been either returned to it's original condition when it was new, or in an even better condition (due to modern materials being used)

Overhauled to us means a piano has been inspected and only those parts which are worn or are in need of replacement are renewed.

Before we look at restoration it is important for us to describe the main sections of the piano as a glossary of terms : The diagram shows the main parts in the construction of an upright piano. There are enormous resources available for the in depth description of these components so we will just give bullet point descriptions as appropriate.