Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Advice for a secondary keyboard/piano?

Hi. I’m new to the forum:

I'm thinking of getting a secondary keyboard in a few months, and even after reading the FAQ I'm pretty lost, so I ask you for some advice. Relevant information:

1. Level of playing: I can play the sinfonia of Bach's partita #2 and I've just started Beethoven 'Tempest' 3rd movement. I can play some of the Chopin Preludes, Mozart sonatas, some Rachmaninoff preludes. I've been playing as an amateur since childhood, and have attended private lessons for many years.

2. What do I currently use: I play on a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-575, after many years of using a CLP-930. I also have the chance of playing from time to time on a Yamaha grand piano.

3. Why do I want a keyboard: I spend a month on holiday outside home (and many other spring and summer weekends), at a secondary residence, where I just have a 30 year-old 48-key Casio keyboard with no key sensitivity and no sustain pedal.

4. What do I want: I want a non-bulky keyboard that lets me practice the pieces I'm working on while on holiday. The space where I want to put it is not very big. I want it to have key-sensitivity and at least a sustain pedal (it could be great if i could have 2 or 3 pedals). I want it to have 5 or 6 octaves. I want it to have some weight on the keys (nothing spectacular, but something that remotely resembles a piano). And of course I want it to have headphone compatibility (although I imagine every single keyboard has it).

5. What I don't want/need: I don't want flashy screens and don't need MIDI compatibility, a hundred different sound samples, rythms to play over or "colourful" keys. If it has some of these features, they can be welcome, but they're secondary (or tertiary).

6. Budget: Around € 500 max. If it can be a little less, better, since this keyboard will have an intensive use for a month and some weekends, but it will rest unused for the rest of the year.

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Thank you very much.

For your budget, you are looking at the lowest tier of entry-level digital pianos. (Digital pianos have fully-weighted, hammer-action keys, unlike portable keyboards.) Here are some entry-level digital pianos from absolute cheapest (and definitely worst) to more expensive. I favor the FP10 since I had an FP30 (3rd) which has the same keyboard action as the FP10 and it was probably one of the best among these entry level digital pianos. I got my daughter a P-45 (2nd) which is acceptable - didn't know if she would have an interest.

• cheapest new digital piano
• Yamaha P45
• Roland FP30

To stretch your budget further, if I were in your shoes, I'd consider the used market. For example, Amazon.de has some great deals for fully-weighted, hammer-action keyboards that are used.

Casio CDP-S100, around 340 euro, M-Audio SP2 sustain pedal , around 15 euro, and a double braced X-stand (between 20 and 60 euro, depending on the brand...

Not sure of Euro pricing, but a Yamaha P45 is probably close to your budget, the P125 a bit more. It's not clear if you need a stand, but both come with sustain pedal. Neither has auxilliary pedal input.

Or ... rent a really good piano for the short time you need it. Is that possible in your location?

All the boards mentioned so far are 88 keys, and you asked for something smaller. So the actual answer is probably Yamaha P-121.

Thank you for answering.

Yes, I'd need a stand for it! Since I own a Clavinova at my main location and I will only use the "secondary keyboard" for a month + some weekends, I wasn't thinking on spending too much on it. But I want something that is not bland either, so I could expand my budget a little bit if it's worth it. Would you practice some Bach/Beethoven on those keyboards? What are some more expensive options under €1,000?

I've searched a bit on the used online market in my country, and I'm not convinced at all. There are not many keyboards listed, and all of them are almost at retail price, except for one that has broken keys. I'll continue scouting a bit, but being that situation, I prefer to get a new one for a €50-75 difference.

The idea of renting a piano is great, but not feasible. The holiday place I'm talking about is a town with barely 1,000 people living there. The next relevant city is an hour away.

As I mentioned above, check on Amazon.de over here. There is a lightly-used Casio PX-160 listing for €276.60 including the shipping cost. The PX-160 is a fully-weighted, hammer-action keyboard with 88 keys. You would need to buy a stand and the pedal separately, but even with those two things, it would come in way under your budget.

Hey TS. Maybe you should sell him your old FP slab. You don't use it anymore, right?

Unfortunately already sold my FP30 on Craigslist back in August for about $500 with the stand, no shipping. Buyer just picked it up.

I say unfortunately because then later, I started a renovation and needed a practice piano and had to buy an P45/P71 which I gave to my daughter and borrow back when I need a portable. With foresight, I would have preferred to keep the FP30 for that purpose. The FP30 is also better than the P45 for my daughter to learn piano on. Alas. Hindsight is 20/20.

I wouldn't want anything less than a Yamaha P125 / Kawai ES110 / Roland FP30 / Casio PX-S1000 to practice classical music on a DP if you are on a low budget (or you require a light keyboard easy to move).

Again, with your criteria of "I want it to have 5 or 6 octaves," I think your only choice remains the Yamaha P-121, at least if you want something self-contained (built-in sounds, built-in speakers).

Personally, I'd get an FP-10 before I got a P45. Thomann has a bundle with stand for 489€

https://www.thomann.de/de/roland_fp_10_stand_bundle.htm?ref=intl&shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZGUiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6IjIiLCJsYW5ndWFnZSI6ImRlIn0%3D

I played the FP-10 in Tokyo last year and was pleasantly surprised, and there are areas I preferred it to my Kawai ES-110. I've not had a chance to try the new Casio's yet, so no opinion there, but for my money, the FP-10 is the best I've played under 500€, and I thought was, in some regards, better than some of the over 500€ bunch.

Edit: I read "I want it to have 5 or 6 octaves. I want it to have some weight on the keys" as "at least 5 or 6", if you really can't fit a full 88 keys, what about the Roland go:Piano? https://www.thomann.de/de/roland_go_piano.htm

I have one at home, and it's actually not that terrible to play. It's a spring action, not a hammer action, so it's not the best for working on your dynamics, but I find it very playable as a travel piano. The springs are weighted enough that it gives enough resistance to not feel to organ or synth like, and enough to feel "sort of" like a piano.

Korg also made a 73 key version of the LP-380, but it's already discontinued so it would have to be a used one.

Two considerations (I like that list) --

a) You're not gigging, or doing street busking --
. . . you can manage the weight and size of 88 weighted keys;

b) If you ever want to sell it, the market for an 88-key DP is larger than the market for a P-121.

I have Yamaha P-121 for very similar needs as yours. I wanted 73 key version - so it is easier to travel with. If you are just going to leave it at the vacation home, Yamaha P-125 is another option.

Other similar options are Kawai ES110, Roland FP30 or Casio PX-S1000. If you have space for 88 key keyboard - I would highly recommend Roland FP30 - very good (if not the best) action in this price range IMHO.

Osho

My main DP is a Kawai MP11. I have just bought a Roland FP10 to practice scales in my lunch break at my office. The action is quite similar to that of the MP11. The internal sound is just OK, but as a MIDi piano controller it is hard to beat for the price.

Before buying it I also tried the Casio Px s-1000 whose action was OK but not as good (and whose MIDI implementation does not transmit note-off velocity). I also tried the Roland FP30, whose action is also nice in its way. It feels like a nice analogue piano with heavy action. Comparable to the Kawai VPC1 but somewhat heavier. Too heavy for me to play trills and fast runs. The FP feels perfect in that respect.

The FP10 and FP30 have the exact same keyboard action.

It is possible that there are small changes though, especially with a new model, revisions wouldn't be out of the question. These could even affect new FP-30's, but there is probably a lot of "pre FP-10" inventory out there still. I'd be curious to try them side by side and see if there's any difference. Of course, I have no idea if I'd be playing a "new" or "old" FP-30!

I am sure the technology is the same as per Roland specs. In reality, though, even the key material is not the same, being a bit more plasticky on the FP-10 and having a more yellowish/ivory tint on the FP-30. I compared the two back and forth for half an hour. I really wanted to buy the FP-30 for its more powerful output stage and, having read all relevant posts on this forum, I was expecting the action to feel the same on both. In fact, it felt significantly different. I discussed it with the shop owner who totally agreed that the action felt differently and stated that a number of buyers said the action on the FP-30 was closer to that of an acoustic piano. The dealer is the main Roland dealer in London, so I doubt the FP-30 would be old stock.