Piano

I have an acoustic piano, but I am considering buying a digital piano, probably a Yamaha.

Just wondered if anyone is familiar with digital piano, and might have any advice to share with a prospective purchaser.

"I was sitting at my piano, the other day
But my mind was ill at ease
They were coming to take it away that afternoon ...." etc.

HAHA

Hadn't seen that before.

ena , I'd go Yamaha every time, the sound and feel are as real as you can get, I have a Roland as well and the sound is also good but, the feel of the keys is better on the yamaha in my opinion,

Roland

yamaha

my 50 pence piano, a real acoustic

I've had several Yamahas too, and Tom's right about the sound and feel. I have a Kawasaki as well but, to me, the keys feel just the same!

My piano desperately needs tuning. Not been able to have it tuned for more than two years now. (Covid)

In past, a friend took care of tuning and routine maintenance. Sadly, he passed away a few years back. So, I am not one of the established customers for any of the tuners.
I do have one of the Yamaha PSR keyboards, and it has been useful having a practice instrument which does not go out of tune. However, it is only a 61 key device, which is limiting.

I only ever have used the grand piano voice, and never use the other features, so I would be better off with a proper 88 key digital piano.

There is no consistency in the online reviews. I get the impression they all are promoting stuff for which they have been paid. So I am asking people for advice/recommendations.

Thanks tom.

Exactly what I am looking for. Comments from people actually using the stuff.

as you will have noticed, I'm a complete novice, I have had no formal music training and have no formal levels of certification so I can only say how I find the different sounds and feels, the acoustic is my favourite but as you point out, they need constant maintenance and are heavy and cumbersome, That 50 pence acoustic I bought was 100 years old and untunable, it was 3 tones flat and when i tried to bring it to concert pitch the strings snapped so, I bought a Roland keyboard 88 notes and fitted it the real piano, it works ok, but give me the

blues

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the piano tuner.

He was blind. This was Bryn, maybe other on here will know who the man was.

It is not the abilities of the blind man with tuning/tones per se that intrigued me. It is that the internals of pianos are so complex: a veritable forest of tuning pegs, hammers and dampers to contend with. I was amazed somebody could negotiate through all of that without seeing it.

I was , and still am amazed at the workings of a real piano and, when you think, they were first made in the times before mechanized machinery so every piece of wood and metal was hand made,
I remember my early days in School ( 1955/6) and the piano tuner came, he was also blind and had a guide dog,
Later in life my dad also had a piano and the tuner came and, he was also blind ( 1963/4) , That would be in Bryn, Maybe the same one as yours Ena ? As you say they are an amazing instrument and I like to watch a good player take the front panel off so you can see all the rods, keys and hammers doing thier magic,

Tom

I have told yoo, a piano is a wooden box, with a harp inside it, in which the strings are 'bonked', rather than 'plucked' and it comes apart like Lego, we also had a blind piano tuner (Pemberton) and he had a very sleepy Golden Labrador guide dog, and he didn't use tuning forks, he used just his hearing, and after he had finished the piano was {{{{SOUND}}}

That blind man must have been busy or there were two of them. We had one that came to Abram St. John's as well.

I've often wondered do blind people have more sensitive hearing or was it a sympathy ploy ? You never heard them play ,

A sympathy ploy?

Aye, the one I have described would have been around the right age to have possibly been a veteran of the 1914-1918 Conflict.

"It's my boithday and it's my noses boithday too."

I wonder if I will find a better price for the Yamaha come Black Friday, or even after Christmas.

Yesterday, Amazon knocked £16 off the price, but the offer only lasted for twenty minutes before price went back up: don't know what all that was about. Insignificant reduction for a brief interval.

Snozzle!

In my experience Ena , the best time to purchace a used yamaha Keyboard is around May. Manchester and Liverpool uni students buy them for the music courses to prace on in their flats and student accommodation then, when the course finishes , they sell them on as they probably have a piano at home,

Also february is another good time, Parents buy them for presents for the kids and after the initial few weeks of practice, the kids stop using them, So gumtree and ebay will produce good buys,

another way is to look for an older version, I recently bought a Yamaha PSR-GX76, which is an outdated but very good model for £50, Its got 76 full sized keys and that grand piano sound as well as a lot of whistle's and bells , If you like, i can make a video for you showing some of what it has,
heres a picture of it in the old piano, the bottom keyboard is the Roland and the top key board is the yamaha PSR-GX76
I also have a Yamaha P-35 which is a 88 note digital, I keep that one in the house, the beauty of digital keyboards is, you can plug the earphones in and practice with disturbing others,

I like the way you have used the piano carcase as a housing for the digital keyboards. I have a friend who is a piano restorer/rebuilder. Cost is horrendous, only worthwhile for top of the range: Steinways and such like. Last time I saw him, he was rebuilding a Pianola. I shall bear in mind your endeavours in case he finds a nice case but useless interior example on his hands. He no-longer plays himself as he is now deaf. His wife invited me to come and try the Pianola, so I guess he has completed the build.

As for me, I want 88keys, or I am not gaining any advantage over my Yamaha PSR. Yamaha P125 appeals.

Although I have seen used P125s for sale, oddly the asking price tends to be greater than the price of new. I probably will buy new. My Yamaha PSR keyboard, I have had for about 20 years, problem free.

Well, no luck waiting for a Black Friday deal.

Did not really expect it. Apparently many people took up or resumed playing during lock downs, and there is a constraint on the volume being imported. (also they may be impacted by the shortage of microprocessors and memory chips)

The few I have found, they are asking for higher prices than they were at beginning of the month!

Will see what after Christmas brings, though I do really hope that by then, I will have found someone to tune the acoustic piano.

I'm not surprised about that ena , given your age, which you gave us a hint in the licence thread, You are old enough to know that 'black Friday' is a marketing ploy, Another fabricated salespersons trick, to lure bargain hunting, loose flapped purse holders into the lair of, a wolf in sheeps clothes,
Realistically you will not get a Yamaha 88 key piano for less than £200 in good working order, A piano tuner will want £50 minimum but, expect add on's and he or she will not leave your house with less than £100,
So £200 is a well spent sum for an item that, if in good condition, will need no maintenance ever,

Tom,
I don’t know where you shop but I have seen some excellent Black Friday deals both in the stores and on-line.

A man named Healen,sorry I forgot his first name, from Standish tuned pianos.
He was blind and passed away a few years ago.

I put my hand up broady, I'm not a good shopper, I go in a shop when i want an item, buy it and go out, I don't go browsing for stuff i don't need, The salespersons can see I'm a hard sell so they leave me alone, I shop on a NEED basis , A Salesperson goes for people shopping on a DESIRE basis, We're totally different prey to the salesperson, I've seen some Black friday bargains too like, A gold mens watch, RRP £550, BF price £330. WOW I'm thinking, Who'd buy that when I can buy 2 watches in Blackpool street markets for £5, Its always something I don't need going for a reduced price,

Taken the plunge, and ordered ,new, a Yamaha P125. Expected delivery is 21 or 22 Dec. So it can sort a be a Christmas pressy to misen!

good on you Ena, You will not be disappointed with the Yamaha,

They had a Yamaha YPT260 in Lidl’s the other day, 89.99 !

tis but a
toy

really pleasing that so much music playing is going on. I never had any music ability at all but always envied those who could play. On retirement I bought a basic Yamaha keyboard and enventually I now have a Tyros 4 which I know is extravagant given my quite limited ability but self taught from tutor books and all the bells and whistles allows me, and the keyboard, to sound quite presentable. Sadly I lost my audience of one a few years ago who was most tolerant of my mistakes early days. Good luck with your new purchase I am sure it will give you many years of pleasure.

I had to google tyros 4, Its a good choice that is, and the Yamaha's own playing system takes you straight in the pleasure dome, there's no need for endless scale practicing and music theory , Good luck orrellite and if you need an audience, make some vids on youtube and post them here or, we have a folk club on the wiganworld board were we make a din without upsetting the locals,

My husband had a Yamaha D85 with Leslie external speaker. More like pieces of furniture. Lots of bells and whistles with enough power to blow the roof off. He did use the headphones when practicing something new.
Enjoy your music everyone.

Thanks for that tom yes you are right choice of voices is fantastic and particulary the organ section and ballroom rythm takes me right back to our days at the Tower Ballroom. Thanks for the suggestion but I have limitations on coordination which is essential as I am only able to play from music.

Ah a Reginald Dixon Fan, Yea me too, My Dad would enjoy sitting there watching him all day everyday,

by the seaside by the sea

absolutely, we went to see him in concert at the Queens Hall of all places and our son who was just starting to play has a signed LP from that very performance in the 70's No idea what the instrument he played that night but produced all his signature sounds and tunes.

I had a Technics organ for a while, I bought it for £10. These are dirt cheap now because they have been superseded by keyboards, Its a nice instrument but took a lot of room, So I gave it to an old peoples home
Merry Christmas

Six Mars Bars and Reginald Dixon playing?

Luxury!

how's the new piano going Ena ? I'm working on some Professor Longhair stuff, here's a video of Dr John showing how Professor Longhair played his New Orleans style stuff

New Orleans style piano

Interesting

Jools Holland was on the Beeb earlier talking about different styles of piano playing.

Yes, my Yamaha arrived yesterday. (Even though it was only scheduled for 22/23rd)

Unfortunately, my pain level is very high at he moment, so not yet unpacked the parcel!

It is not destined to be my main instrument. Just a handy secondary for practice. It will be particularly useful when it is cold. I can practice in my study, which is considerably more toasty than the piano room. My study is somewhat cramped, so I recon I need to buy a gig bag to protect it and allow me to store it on its end, and keep free from dust when it is not being used.