Electric pianos - I know nothing

sgosden

Looking to get an electric Piano for the missus, as we can fit her actual piano in the house.

Played a few in PMT and she liked the hammer action keys on the Roland models. But at £800+ for a new one, with Bluetooth and a million sounds and a built in coffee maker, is more than what I'd want to fork out. Ideally I'd like sub £250 for a second hand one.

There are some Roland HP series (1, 103e, 136) on ebay for low starting bids which I've got my eye on.

Really she's just going to be using 1 or 2 piano sounds for playing at home. More than likely through head phones (she's very shy about her playing despite being really good). so decent weighted keys are really the most important feature

Any words of wisdom ?

olafgarten

In terms of new Pianos, you can get the MAudio Accent or an Alesis Coda Pro. These aren't very good though, I'd recommend at least something like the Yamaha YDP 142. 

crunchman

I bought a Roland FP30 for my daughter.  The piano itself is listed at £489 at several places.  It's more if you want the nice stand.  For what you want it would be ideal.  We actually had a guy around at ours for some rehearsals who makes his living as a piano teacher who phoned me the next week asking what model it was so he could recommend it for a student.

It's got the same sounds and key action as some of the much more expensive Rolands but the costs are cut by having all the controls as push button and no LCD displays etc. In a live band situation you would want one of the higher end ones but for home use as a piano the FP30 is excellent.

Chalky

Roland or Yamaha can't go wrong. Definitely secondhand because there are so many of them around at low prices - just check every key works. As long as it has weighted keys or hammer action you'll be fine, even if the keyboard is quite old. My CVP509 must be coming up towards 10 years old and is still a superb piano.

maltingsaudio

Maybe an idea to hire one for a month or two to see if it fits

steer

I was in the exact same situation. We ended up getting a new bottom of the range Yamaha. Its the YDP-143 for Mrs Steer. 

She's delighted with it. 

Bear in mind I also know nothing whatsoever about these things, but it sounds good and plays good. It is loud enough, but the only downside is that the volume needs to be pretty much maxed out, so there is little scope to go any louder. With that in mind, with hindsight I would probably go for the next one up in the range. 

We were looking secondhand for ages, but the only ones that kept coming up were either very very old, or nearly as expensive as a new one. Admittedly I gave up looking after a while and bit the bullet on a new one. 

sgosden

Picking up a roland HP136 soon, hopefully it fits the bill!

crunchman

Chalky said:

Roland or Yamaha can't go wrong. Definitely secondhand because there are so many of them around at low prices - just check every key works. As long as it has weighted keys or hammer action you'll be fine, even if the keyboard is quite old. My CVP509 must be coming up towards 10 years old and is still a superb piano.

We have a 10 year old Roland at our church.  The FP30 definitely has better sounds in it - and a better key action as well AFAIK.  The technology has improved over 10 years.

Chalky

I tried the newer Yamaha models but the 'improvements' are largely marketing hype. Kinda like the diff between a US and Mexican strat.

Steffo

Chalky said:

I tried the newer Yamaha models but the 'improvements' are largely marketing hype. Kinda like the diff between a US and Mexican strat.

The guys that build it have sombreros instead of 10 gallon hats?

TheOtherDennis

The differences are even more borderline than that.