Learn me: digital pianos

For this Christmas, it looks like Santa is going to be bringing us a digital piano since that's what SWMBO thinks the kids will enjoy, and she's been wanting one for a while to start playing again.

We stopped by the local guitar center, and tried the Yamaha, Casio and, um.. I forget the other brand. We liked the Casio Privia the best as far as feel/action/weight of the keys.

I'm not seeing a lot of good choices on the c-list market for the past month or so, and based on what I'm reading you don't really want to buy one older than 5 years or so, as they're likely to have a reason that someone is moving it on such as failing keys or something.

As a totally non-musical person, any suggestions about finding a good local shop to work with on this, and any brands you recommend hunting down? We're near Hartford,ct if anyone knows a local music store that would be good to support. I've accepted that this is going to cost $3-600, and I'd rather get a good one that lasts than junk.

Thanks!

My son plays both an old upright Chickering piano from the 1940's and a lower-end Yamaha electronic that we bought used from a music store. It was surprisingly cheap. I think it has like 61 full-sized keys. I have no idea what it's life was like before we bought it, but it has since seen regular use. It travels to once-a-week lessons, and has even survived a tumble from the stage. It bounced, but did not break. It's quite light and easy to transport and has the option of working from batteries or a wall wart. The kids' music teacher at middle school has the same exact model in the band room.

I recommend Yamaha, but I've also got an old Casio from like 30-years ago that still works also, so I think either could be a good choice.

Edit: Ours is a YPT-310. Specs on Yamaha website:

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/keyboards/digitalkeyboards/portable_keyboards/ypt-310/

I think it's pretty old by now, so probably won't find same model unless used. For your budget, there should be numerous excellent options.

I recently bought a Yamaha NP-12 so my daughter could start lessons, and I am happy with it. I wanted something that wasn't overloaded with features we'd never use, and this, is that.

About once a year, our local (state) university unloads its surplus instruments. Most are not that old. You might want to call your local music department and see if they have anything.

Cool, thanks for the info guys.

Consider a real piano as well if you have the space. Old uprights have a value in the $0-300 range. I've got a CL search for "piano" and I get several hits a day in our little mountain town. You'll have to move it and maybe get it tuned (how hard can it be to DIY? ), but it's an easy option.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

A $0-$300 'real' piano has the same chance of cost escalation as a $0-$300 Porsche.

Duke wrote: In reply to Keith Tanner: A $0-$300 'real' piano has the same chance of cost escalation as a $0-$300 Porsche.

It does but I bought my 1902 Steinway K52 from a piano restorer for 1500$ 5 years back or so. Sound board is bigger then most grands and new cost would have been close to 17-22K give or take.

Having said that, really any 61 key that you like the action of with a speaker will do the job just fine for 99% of the people on this earth. Make sure that it has peddle options and that you can plug in a set of headphones easily for nighttime playing. If they want to go nuts in the future you can just use it as a MIDI controller and buy a good piano pack pretty cheaply.

Duke wrote: In reply to Keith Tanner: A $0-$300 'real' piano has the same chance of cost escalation as a $0-$300 Porsche.

Not really. They're not going to leak or catch on fire or anything. There are 88 copies of the same basic mechanism inside. Make sure the soundboard is solid and there's nothing obviously broken and no missing keys.

I've looked at a few in the "just make it go away" price range and they'd be fine for the purposes stated. The problem is that the moving and tuning expenses are usually more than the piano is worth. This is a forum where we have people taking destroyed pawn shop guitars and restoring them, I figured that there'd be open minds when it comes to DIY piano work.

Tuning is fundamentally the same as tuning a guitar. Lots more strings and lots more time, but the basic concept is the same.

Keith Tanner wrote: Consider a real piano as well if you have the space. Old uprights have a value in the $0-300 range. I've got a CL search for "piano" and I get several hits a day in our little mountain town. You'll have to move it and maybe get it tuned (how hard can it be to DIY? ), but it's an easy option.

Great advice if you have the room for it and you've got access to the muscle required to move one, especially if stairs are involved. There are an abundance of good pianos out there, even if you cap your buy-in at $300. Just as when car-buying, take someone knowledgeable along with you. They can help you differentiate between the junkers and the gems.

Yeah, we thought about taking a rescue piano into our lives, but I just don't think our home is ready for that level of commitment..

With three young kids, we don't really have space for it. We want to be able to move it up or downstairs as needed for seasonal rearrangements.

If you look into getting an old upright, a few things to consider are: Size, the taller the better for several reasons. The first of which sound quality; the bigger the harp, more accurately it can be tuned with less compromise in terms of interference harmonics. Second, the wires have to hold less tension on a tall harp vs. a shorter one meaning it will stay in tune longer with less wire fatigue. Third, a taller a piano will have better key response due to less hysteresis in the action.

If the piano is more than 30 years old, be prepared for the piano technician (choose a certified technician, not just certified tuner) who comes to tune/repair it, which WILL need to be done about 3ish weeks after it gets to your house, to show you a few things that have to be repaired before it can be tuned properly. PRAY that the peg board still has sufficient friction to hold the tuning heads tightly, because that is a several thousand $$$ repair job even on a $3.00 piano.

And finally, learning to correctly repair and maintain a real piano is a very GRM thing to do

WildScotsRacing wrote: If you look into getting an old upright, a few things to consider are: Size, the taller the better for several reasons.

Also important to know the difference between an "upright" and a "spinet" which has a "drop-action" and is considered inferior to a proper "upright".

WonkoTheSane wrote: Yeah, we thought about taking a rescue piano into our lives, but I just don't think our home is ready for that level of commitment.. With three young kids, we don't really have space for it. We want to be able to move it up or downstairs as needed for seasonal rearrangements.

Stairs are an excellent reason to go with a digital So are headphones.

When I was studying music, we had about a hundred pianos in the practice rooms at the faculty. They got played at least 12 hours a day. Every fall, the heat would come on and every freakin' one would go out of tune. Then again in the spring. That would have been a rough time to be one of the full-time piano techs, who were basically tuning pianos all day, every day. At least they weren't abused instruments, they were just high use.

I was the only wind player who did his own work on his instruments. Spent a lot of interesting hours in the workshop learning about them.

I shopped around for a while before we ended up buying a Kawai CA65 a couple years ago, which I really like. Before looking at the Kawai, I was convinced that I was going to buy a Yamaha Clavinova, until I tried the Kawai. Quite a bit more expensive than the price range you listed, but I'd recommend going into a music store to try one out, to see what a nice digital piano is like.

http://www.kawaius.com/digital/dp_main.html

I got a great deal on a nearly new Yamaha DGX-650 package on CL - $400 ish? College student got it as a gift and decided he wouldn't use it. I got a feeling he was telling the truth, but who knows. My sons age 8 and 4 like the different instrument sounds they can play - a bonus with a digital piano. Headphones are another bonus. The plan is to have them take lessons in the spring/summer. Definitely get one with good weighted action keys. I found the supply on CL for digital pianos was inconsistent - nothing I wanted for a while, then found several options all of a sudden.

Thanks for the review Kawai, mainlandboy. We just got back from stopping by 5 music stores to try pianos, only one had a Kawai, and it was an acoustic upright.

We ended up bringing home a Korg B1, which is on a stand with the three pedals. We liked the action and feel of the keys the best, it ended up costing us about 700 out the door with two Disney song books, a kids intro book and a bench.

My wife is excited to play again, too.

Thanks for the discussion, gents, even if it was mostly about acoustic uprights...

If I were to buy another keyboard (I have a plain Jane midi controller that I can hook to whatever), I'd have to find a DX-7