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Hi,

This is my first post, although I've lurked here for a while.

I'm an adult who took a few lessons as a kid, then gave it up for 30+ years. I am starting to play again, in part because there was a piano in the house that my wife and I have rented for the past year.

Now we are moving, and I want to buy a keyboard. I have been reading up on them, and I have a chance to buy a Yamaha P120 at a good price tonight through Craigslist. Believe it or not, my wife wants me to spend more money for something new. If I went that route, I would be in the Casio PX-300 price range, with an outside shot at something like a Yamaha P155 or Yamaha m08, if the price were right.

So here is my question about the P120. The seller has admitted to me that at least one key sticks, and he also says that he lost the power adapter, but that the P120 was working fine last winter when his kids were playing it. I am showing up tonight with a power adapter, so I can find out whether or not the keyboard works. What else should I look for with this instrument? Is the stuck key a deal breaker? Are there any I/O ports that people have had problems with? Anything else? Should I listen to my wife's advice and buy something new? If so, what?

Thanks in advance, Bob

We owned a P120 for quite a while, if it is in good shape I'd say go for it over a Casio, though "kids playing on it" and the missing adapter are rather ominous signs.

Spend a lot of time with the keys - play each one light, medium, & heavy. Do this both with the power on and the power off. Look at the keys closely for signs of abuse.

Look at the case everywhere - it is plastic and could have been dropped. Look at the bottom for scratches. Pick it up and rotate it, and listen for sounds of loose plastic.

Look at the power and headphone jacks for signs of stress.

Press every button and make sure they all work - most have LEDs associated with their activity.

Turn up the volume all the way and play a bass chord hard - listen for rattling / buzzing of the speakers or loose plastic.

Make sure you get the pedal and music rest. The pedal is pretty nice and supports half-pedaling. The music rest is mostly Plexiglas and probably scratches easily.

Box, packing, and manuals are a huge plus for later resale.

Oh, and read the manual before you go:

http://download.yamaha.com/search/p...;category_id=16086&product_id=106697

Shouldn't take much time, it's not a super-complicated DP.

Rebiii,
The P-120 is 5 to 6 years old. It has been replaced by the P-155 which gets high praise from people who own them. Regarding the Casio, I assume you're talking about the PX-330 as the PX-300 is discontinued and no longer made? If you're spending $600 or more for a used P-120, I would think it makes more sense to go for the P-155. Guitar Center is running a 15 percent off sale right now so you could buy one for around $849. The PX-330 would be even cheaper than that. If I'm not mistaken some P-120's had defective keybeds.

Hi All,

Thank you again for the advice. It turned out that the stuck key was a deal breaker, at least temporarily. I still may get the keyboard, but only if that can be fixed. I went over everything carefully, as Dewster suggested, before deciding not to buy it, and Galaxy4T, yes, I did mean the Casio PX-330.

I think that that P-155 or the PX-330 are my most likely options now. I need to think about it a little bit more.

A stuck key might just be dislocated, or have some crap lodged in there. It could also be broken, and a sign of abuse / poor manufacturing.

How did the rest of it look? If OK: you might want to try a really low-ball price, based on the trouble you would have to go to (dissemble, diagnose, repair) to fix it and see how the seller responds. They must know the stuck key is a huge selling deterrent. If not OK: I'd definitely move on to something else.

FIY, we sold our P120 last year, in near mint condition and with box, packing, and manual for $400 USD. It was sold to one of my wife's students, so the price was kept as reasonable as we could reasonably make it. IMO, old DPs aren't worth nearly as much as sellers tend to think they are.

We shone a flashlight down into the cracks on either side of the key, but didn't see any obvious crud there.

Then I tried to take off the gray front panel to get a better look at the key. There were five screws underneath that I took out, but the panel wouldn't come free. I am generally a take-it-apart-and-fix-it kind of guy, but since it wasn't my piano, I didn't want to tug at the panel to see if I could free it, thinking I might break something. And the owner didn't seem to want to tug at it either.

As for the rest of the piano, the speakers seemed OK (I crashed a few bass chords through them), and I got three levels of sound out of each of the keys I checked, although I didn't go through them one by one, because the stuck key trumped that level of examination. My power adapter worked too.

The piano wasn't in terrible cosmetic condition, but it was in the guy's basement and a little dusty. It would probably clean up pretty well. I think I'm going to take your advice and see how low of a price he can leave it to me in. I liked it except for the stuck key.

Here is a link to a photo teardown of our P120.

IIRC, flipping it over, you only need to remove the screws nearest the back, not the sides or front - though nothing terrible will happen if you do, just more things will come free. If you are handy it isn't a big deal at all. And if you are handy repairing a broken key probably isn't a big deal either.

Going by what you are saying I don't think I'd spend more than maybe $250 for it. IMO it's better than most current Casios. A new P155 @ $850 is something of a no-brainer. And an FP-7F would be a considerable step up from there. If you can find any Kawais near you to demo that might be something to look into as well if you want to stay on the low end of new DP prices.

The stuck key (white, right ?) most likely has a small piece of plastic broken off. This is a common P120 problem. If you call Yamaha they will probably send you a free key. Replacement requires a bit of work with a Philips screwdriver, but is not difficult. Or, I can mail you one, I've got a stash !
An authorized servicer (sorry, I just retired !) can get an entire keyboard free, but will charge labor for installation (probably $65 or so).

OK, I made him a lower offer for it. We'll see what he says.

I'm going to figure in at least $100 for repairs. If I can do the repairs myself, then it will be a pleasant surprise.

The diagram of the P120 open is much appreciated. I'll revisit this topic if I score the keyboard and need help disassembling it.

I am pretty handy, but not with electrical stuff, just mechanical stuff. But the key sounds like it is a mechanical job.

P120 started over 10 years ago. It has a clunky action and a clangy piano sound. But its still beats a Casio Privia, imo.

Hi, I just wanted to update everyone on how this turned out.

First of all, you are all awesome! The story has a nice ending, since I followed your advice.

I offered the seller $175 and he accepted it. The P120 had two stuck keys. It was in a cellar and was dirty. This was more than dust. It was some kind of sticky stuff, almost like dried tree sap, that had fallen all over the instrument. It looked like it would come off, though. It came with the pedal and the music stand, but the stand for the piano itself was broken. It seemed that the piano had obviously taken a fall down the cellar stairs. There was no power supply either, but I had a universal power supply at home that worked. The two stuck keys were the C three octaves above middle C and the B below it, and since everything worked below that, I figured I would just use the keyboard as a 75 key instrument or so if I couldn't fix it.

Cleaned it up (with a lot of help from my wife) and brought it down to Florida with us on summer vacation. I looked into getting the keys fixed, and was told that it would be $70+ per key. Then I reread Dewster's comment and gave Yamaha a call. They called me back within a couple of days and wanted to know the serial number of the instrument. I told them, and they offered me a brand new keyboard! All I had to do was pay for labor. I just had the work done today. It cost me $60. The new keyboard is GH88. It is a little noisy in certain spots, but the action is really nice and NEW. I am hoping that it will break in with a little use.

So I have a really decent instrument, for a total cost of $235 and a little elbow grease. I need a stand for it too, but something will come along.

I got a serious case of piano envy at the service shop. They had all of the latest Yamaha models, electric and acoustic, and well, wow, I'm sure you know what they're like. But this P120 that I have is good enough for someone at my level (think Bach Minuet in G, Mozart Sonata Facile, Chopin Prelude in C Minor). If I ever do have to upgrade, it will definitely be a Yamaha. In me they have a customer for life. Thanks for your advice in this thread.

Bob

Congrats Bob! Sounds like you did really good for $235 + some effort.

I wouldn't be too envious of modern DPs. Tragically, most haven't progressed much past the P120.

I agree - P120 has the same piano voice as the Modus H-01 which is still retailed for over £7,000 in the UK.

That's appalling really. I thought the Modus Series used the SCM like the new CP series but then I realized the Modus has been out a while.

Bob, congrats on the piano. I've played a P120 several times and played the P155, never back to back, but as far as my fingers and ears could tell, they are pretty close. You did good for $235.

To echo everyone else, for $235 you did well Bob.



On intial playing this doesn't seem to be the case, however the longer you really live with these things, I'll have to agree with that statement 100%.

Dave I see that you're selling your CP5, did it just get to be too much of a PIA to move around? What are your plans for a replacement board?

It's gotta be a Nord Piano, surely?

Busted !

After this outside gig yesterday afternoon, I decided I just wasn't digging the sound as much as I was. It was the first gig where I tried the CP5 using my new 12" two way RCF, the TT22A.

The weight/pia to overall enjoyment factor just aren't tipping the scales to justify the schlep for me. I thought the new speaker would make a big difference but the CP5 just sounded like it had a blanket over it. I realize outside is not the place to judge anything but I think I want to change things up with a lighter DP.

So that basically leaves either the NP again or something like the FP4-F or 300NX. I'm just not confident that I'd be happy with the SN sound, live, on either of those Roland DPs. I'm not 100% sold on the new Nord samples either but at least with that, I don't feel it's a one trick pony because of its EPs. With the Rolands I don't feel the EPs are strong enough to warrant bringing either of those to supplement the sound if I'm playing straight acoustic piano.

I might be making a mistake dumping the CP5 but basically I'm tired of schlepping it around to tell the truth.

I'm also getting really impatient of waiting for the Kronos 73 or 88 to appear. The more I think about it, all of those synth-workstation features that you're paying for, are just not appealing to me .

So that basically leaves the Nord... If I can sell the Yamaha locally on CL or through one of these forums I'm on that would be close to covering the NP88.
So I guess I'll wait and see. Luckily most of my gigs are on acoustic and this is not something I have to do tomorrow.

Best of luck selling your Yammie Dave - I'm sure you will grow to appreciate the flexibility of the Nords once you start playing the NP88.

Cheers,
James
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