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I played piano for a few years as a kid, and would like to get back into it at age 28.

Due to space, I have to get digital (and I'm learning that I would prefer it, anyway). I want to spend about $1000.

A Yamaha dealer showed me a YPG-635 which seemed decent.

I see a used CLP 840 on craigslist this morning for $1000 - seems a bit old, and the 32 note polyphony seems low, but I love the Clavinovas.

Most important to me is *touch*, and secondly sound. I care very little for whiz bang features. I'd like all three pedals.

Perhaps there's something besides yamaha I should be considering? Very hard to know. Thanks for your advice in advance,

Dan

You might want to consider the Yamaha P140, as i personally consider a decent digital piano. It's a stage piano, which means the speakers aren't nearly as good as the sound the piano actually provides. In this case you might want to play with earphones or external speakers to get the most of it.

And that's a great tip in general, to try all the pianos you have in mind WITH earphones.

Also the Roland FP-4 is worthing giving a shot. It might be a little more than the 1,000.00 USD budget limit, but it cost nothing to try.

I don't know much about pricing in the US, as I'm from Denmark. But from my experience, it's usually cheaper in the states.

I'd wait for the Yamaha p155..its slightly over your budget
but has better speakers than the p140 and more poly (128)

i agree with P155, the new upgrade and replacement of P140. it will be available within next 2 months, and around $1200.

Thanks for the recommendations!

It seems that most of these are portable keyboards. Is this because of my price range? I'd prefer something in a console type form factor (ala the clavinova).

The YDP140 ($1000) and YPG635 ($800) have the GHS keyboard. Not recommended.

The P140 and ($1000) and YDP160 ($1300) have the much better GHE keyboard.

There are many, many posts that urge people to wait for the P155. That might be a good idea.

You need to decide whether you want a keyboard (P140, P155) or a console (YDP160).

If I had 1000$ to spend, I'd give them to people who really need them, hookers and strippers for instance :P.

Joking aside, I have the YPG-635 [also called DGX 620] and it's a pretty decent keyboard, only that it has A TON of the bells and whistles you don't want. I keep it only on normal piano sound, and I'm pretty happy with it, especially considering that it cost only abt. 900$. You can also buy a 3 pedal unit for it, and I think you would still be under the 1000 price range. Also, it isn't very portable, because it comes with a very sturdy stand [I liked that]. So, bells in whistles aside, it still is a very good keyboard for it's price.

You may want to consider the Casio Privia PX800 for around $900. Includes the stand and 3 pedals. Also the Casio PX320 - the stand and pedal unit can be purchased separately. That's what I have and I'm very pleased with it considering the price.

The closest you're probably going to get to the Clavinova is Yamaha's YDP series. And Horwinkle's already given you those examples.

These model numbers are mind numbing - I think it's intentional

The YDP160 looks exactly like what I'm looking for. I also see the YDP223 a lot - is that recommended?

YDP223 is an older model, while YDP160 is new. i would choose YDP160 over 223.

Other than half pedal, what else is newer in the YDP160?


Thanks.

I saw a Kurzweil Mark 10 for $900. Does anyone have any experience with them?

The YDP160 has 3 level dynamic sampling and half-pedal capability.

The YDP223 has only 1 level sampling and no half-pedal.

I have a full rundown of the specs on this Digital Piano Specs spreadsheet.