Buying A Piano (1 Viewer)

[hugh]

Little girl (who is 6) is starting piano lessons soon and so we need to get hold of some sort of piano/keyboard. Would love to have an upright acoustic but don't have the room or the cash so some sort of electric/digital instrument is in order. Anyone experts out there that can give some advice on what to buy? Ideally I want these things:

- something with feel/action like a "real piano"
- something that sounds like a "real piano"
- minimum of knobs/buttons/distractions (in particular no samba beats)
- a decent range of octaves
- something that stays "in place" .. i.e. not a keyboard that get's put on the kitchen table ...

Is it possible to get something decent along those lines for 500 quid or so?

 

[pixiesisi]

I find the Yamaha digital pianos are the most like real pianos in both sound and feel. The Clavinovas are kind of pricey but the arius ones I think are a good bit cheaper. One of my students picked up one on done deal recently for a song. I'd keep an eye there. I think the rolands and technics etc are great for fiddly stuff but if you want a piano and just don't have space I would totally go Yamaha. Have one myself and teach on it.

Little girl (who is 6) is starting piano lessons soon and so we need to get hold of some sort of piano/keyboard. Would love to have an upright acoustic but don't have the room or the cash so some sort of electric/digital instrument is in order. Anyone experts out there that can give some advice on what to buy? Ideally I want these things:

- something with feel/action like a "real piano"
- something that sounds like a "real piano"
- minimum of knobs/buttons/distractions (in particular no samba beats)
- a decent range of octaves
- something that stays "in place" .. i.e. not a keyboard that get's put on the kitchen table ...

Is it possible to get something decent along those lines for 500 quid or so?

 

[hugh]

Cheers! Just did the rounds of the music shops and was looking at those Arius ones. 869 new for an Arius 141. It seems pretty good but a bit out of our price range. Will hunt around for a second hand one.

The guy in the shop did say though that if we were willing to stretch another 200 quid, the Roland F-120 is way way better ... hmmnnn

 

[Unicron]

Just push her towards the guitar Hugh.

 

[hugh]

Just push her towards the guitar Hugh.

Yeah I know .. that is tempting but I have an ulterior motive. I play piano/keyboard too and don't have such an instrument so you know .. it's kind of for me also.

 

[Unicron]

"Daddy why does the piano say 'Hugh' on it?"

"Hugh is the piano's name."

 

[Anthony]

I stayed in a house with a technics electric piano. It was amazing. Got home and immediately started pricing fancy electric pianos. That put me of the idea.

 

[ogy]

This is on adverts: http://www.adverts.ie/keyboards-and-synthesizers/korg-sp200-digital-stage-piano/2018542

Thomann have loads of sub 500 digital pianos. Anything in that price range is gonna be much of a muchness I'd say.
If you could stretch to around 700 the ones to check out would be korg sp-250, casio privia, roland

 

[mark]

If you loved her you'd getting her a baby grand. You kow it's the right thing to do. I mean, who really needs a kitchen?

 

[sleepy]

Picked this one up a few years ago http://www.thomann.de/ie/yamaha_p95_b.htm
It got me through grade 6 exams. You'll need to get a stand for it but it has a good decent sound and feels like playing a real piano. Also it doesn't take up too much room.

 

[hugh]

Picked this one up a few years ago http://www.thomann.de/ie/yamaha_p95_b.htm
It got me through grade 6 exams. You'll need to get a stand for it but it has a good decent sound and feels like playing a real piano. Also it doesn't take up too much room.

Yeah looks good. I'm torn between getting something like this (i.e. a piano-style keyboard with a stand) and getting something like this:

http://www.thomann.de/ie/roland_f120_sb.htm

i.e. a more permanent "piano" style thing (I have a line on an older version of something like that for 500).

Advantage of the first is it's more compact and it's portable so if I ever wanted to play piano/keyboard in a band setup I could use it.
Advantage of the second is it's more like a "real" piano .. a piece of furniture

 

[ann post]

http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/keyboards/3748829

i know, i know. but its fun to look at. i'd go with the furniture type ones rather than portable.

 

[hugh]

Picked this one up a few years ago http://www.thomann.de/ie/yamaha_p95_b.htm
It got me through grade 6 exams. You'll need to get a stand for it but it has a good decent sound and feels like playing a real piano. Also it doesn't take up too much room.

Is it not going to sound a bit crap though because it's just got a small pair of 6W speakers?

 

[sleepy]

the sound's fine on it, you can have it at pretty much the same volume as a real piano.
When i bought it i was more just looking for something that had fully weighted keys with a decent hammer action (fnar). i was living in an apartment in the middle of towm at the time so couldn't really have it too loud anyways

 

[dudley]

Could you get a midi keyboard with weighted keys, and hook it up to a laptop with headphones?

 

[dudley]

Something like this -

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Keystation88es.html

 

[ann post]

Something like this -

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Keystation88es.html

was gonna say, but

- minimum of knobs/buttons/distractions (in particular no samba beats)

 

[dudley]

ah, the m-audio is pretty knobless.
and there are a million piano only midi libraries out there so stop her banging out the utah saints soundz

 

[hugh]

Dunno about the MIDI keyboard thing. I'm dubious about whether any of them have proper keys/action. More importantly though, want something that sits in the house and that anyone (well, me to be honest) can sit down at and start tinkering away without having to dig out headphones, hook up the laptop, remember how to get the audio software to recognise the keyboard etc etc

 

[dudley]

luddite