Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards celviano ap-45 action, good enough to learn on?

I find myself in the situation of finally being able to buy a digital piano and to start taking lessons (I have doodled on keyboards in my teens, about 20 years ago, for several years, but never owned a piano): given past experiences in other instruments (drums & guitar) I do think it is a good idea to get a 'starter' instrument not to overspend on something that I might not like that much later on, and to buy a 'for keeps' instrument once I know what sound/feel/... I am after.

At the same time I am definitely against 'starter' instruments that hinder, rather than help, the learning via poor quality or other issues.

As much as the AP-45 does not have all the latest bell & whistles the newer celvianos or other DPs have (64 poly, instead of 128, no triple sensor/escapement) it does seem to get pretty good reviews/comments here, but I couldn't find any posts talking about its action and if it's "good enough" so that if I have it for practice I won't be a fish out of water on the (I assume non digital) teacher piano and that it will help me learn things "right" so to speak.

I do not plan to use the AP-45 for concerts or anything, just to learn piano on for a few years at least, in a hopefully enjoyable manner (ergo my question about action, as it sounds quite nice in the youtube videos I was able to find about it).

I have been thinking about the AP-45 also due to the fact that it's easily available for cheap online, and at my level of competence I wouldn't be really able to make an informed decision in a piano store (ok, the v-piano felt really good in my regular music shop, but at this point in time it'd be a bit too much for me )

Thanks for any information you might have, I have been lurking on this excellent forum for a while now and I guess it's time to start partecipating (probably in the adult beginner forum hopefully soon!).

If the ap45 is good or not depends on the price. It's discontinued so I assume you are looking at a used model. So you need to compare what else you could buy for the same money.

My opinion is that you can learn using any decent weighted hammer action keyboard.

it's still sold new on costco.ca (for $649, which is a fairly decent price, not sure where they are finding new ones but apparently it shows as in stock), they also have the px730, px800 and apparently the ap-420 will come in stock soon, but of course for quite a bit more $$$ (it's listed at 1299 and there might be a $200-$300 sale according to a forum post I saw).

The main difference between the ap-45 and the ap-420 is, besides the new sound engine of course, the new triple sensor keyboard: if it does make a big difference of course I would consider it, but if it's only a minor improvement (from the learning perspective, I am sure the ap-420 will sound nicer) I would rather save my money for a better digital piano down the road.

Touch is very subjective, but I love the touch of my AP-45. I was trying out grand pianos at Rick Jones Pianos last week and definitely felt that most felt just like the AP-45, give or take. It certainly is not a hinderance at all.

Also, I have no trouble going from the AP-45 to my Kawai UST-7 upright. {actually kind of prefer the Casio keyboard).

SOme people ar bothered with keyboard noise, "clacking", but I use headphones and never hear any of that.

Good luck which ever way you go.