Devon piano restorer seeks apprentice to take on his thriving business and save a dying craft

Hidden behind an unassuming door in South Brent lies an Aladdin’s cave of pianos. Grand pianos with ornate, intricate inlays. Sturdy Victorian uprights with stripped-down actions just crying out for a little bit of TLC.
This is the domain of Alan Wills, the founder of Magic Pianos, who has spent 35 years rescuing, restoring, and rehoming more than 4,000 pianos across the South West. But while his workshop has never been busier, his industry is facing crisis. 

“I have more pianos coming my way, and requests for tunings and repairs, than I know what to do with,” says Alan. “Business is buoyant. But there are no young people coming up the ranks to take the work on.”

According to Alan, the piano trade is facing a demographic cliff edge in Devon, with a generation of tuners retiring and nobody young learning the ropes. In a few short years, with his own retirement looming, and that of the handful of remaining tuners in
the region, there will be nobody left.
So Alan is seeking an assistant to share his knowledge with and keep the trade alive – a paid position where the right candidate will learn the business, with the ultimate goal of taking over his workshop entirely.

“There is a decent living to be made here. I sell lots of pianos, there’s plenty of demand. I just need someone with some enthusiasm and get-up-and-go, to take over.”

From a motorbike sidecar to a global business
When former Navy man Alan started in 1989, he didn’t even have a van. ”I moved my first 30-odd pianos on a motorbike and sidecar,” he says proudly. More recently, his business involves picking up pianos people give away for free on the likes of Facebook Marketplace, restoring them to their former glory, and selling them on for a reasonable price. “I just want everybody to have a piano,” he says.
Some exceptional pianos come through this workshop. “Right now I have an 1896 Walnut-burr Bechstein, a Rococo Schiedmayer grand, and a vintage pianola I’m restoring. We get all sorts – Yamahas, Steinways, old silent movie pianos with
sound-effects. All beautifully made, top-quality instruments, built to last.
“It would be a tragedy to see them scrapped, just because there’s no-one left in the region to fix them.”

The apprenticeship on offer is a unique paid role where the successful applicant will learn tuning, regulation – the mechanical adjustment of piano keys – and restoration.
Alan is looking for somebody practical who is “musically orientated” – they needn’t be a virtuoso, but “they must enjoy it”.

A “goldmine” for Devon musicians
Local musician Andy Hill, who has sourced several pianos from Alan for projects ranging from pub gigs to outdoor festivals, describes Alan’s workshop as a vital piece of local culture.
“Alan is a bit like the Willy Wonka of pianos – you walk in and it’s this mad Aladdin’s cave of musical history,” says Hill. “During lockdown, we actually moved one of his pianos into the woods at Dartington for a socially-distanced gig, the only concert that
happened in the area for months. It’s crucial that we keep these skills alive, because without people like Alan, real acoustic pianos will simply disappear from our pubs and community spaces.”

The secret upstairs
The workshop holds another surprise. Upstairs, Alan runs a second-hand sheet music business that ships to China, Bolivia, Russia, and America: a massive and irreplaceable archive.
Starting out with a single box of music that paid his shop rent in the late 80s, the collection now boasts 133,000 catalogued titles, including rare Victorian lithographs and out-of-print scores that are snapped up by collectors and universities worldwide.
“It’s my pension business,” Alan jokes, though he admits the real mission is finding the right person to keep the workshop doors open.
“We want to find someone young or keen who is eager to make a business for themselves,” he says. “The work is there. The pianos are there. The customers are certainly there. We just need the hands to do the work.”

Prospective apprentices interested in the role should contact Alan Wills via his website: www.magicpianos.co.uk.