Kemble Pianos

History, relative rating, UK availability and examples handled by Roberts Pianos Oxford.

Guide rating 55-78

Photo Gallery

A Kemble compact piano with 85 keys; one of the best smaller upright pianos in the UK.

A taller Kemble upright; this one is of very high quality.

Baby grand piano

A walnut Kemble Minx. These have short keys and therefore the touch does not have a good range of control.

At a glance

Kemble facts

Make: Kemble

Made in: Est. 1911 by Michael Kemble. Originally based in London, then Milton Keynes, England. Kemble’s factory (owned by Yamaha since the mid 1980′s) closed down at the end of 2009. At the time of closure, they were still exporting about 7000 pianos a year.

Made by: Kemble

Rating: 55-78

Estimated Number In UK: 120,000. 99% upright, 1% grand. About 20% minipianos

Year and serial number:
1930 – 32100

1950 – 81700

1970 – 139100

1990 – 235000

2000 – 298201

Comments

Kemble is a British firm, varied in quality but best are very good. Some older ones are overdampers. Kemble Minx minipianos well made but have “spinet” actions and therefore the keys are too short to give much control. If you’re looking for a small piano, then the Kemble “Compact” is one of the best very small 7 octave pianos in the UK, measuring less than 52 inches in length and having an 85 note keyboard (sufficient for all grades of playing). We normally have one of these in stock, but if not, please leave us your details and we’ll let you know when the next one comes in. Kemble pianos also manufacture some Yamaha upright pianos; you can normally tell which ones were made by them as they carry the suffix “N” to the model number, eg P110N.