Hello! I'm looking into buying a stage piano to take to uni with me this september, my local music service has awarded me a grant of £500 specifically for buying musical shizzle for uni, so ideally I'd like to keep within that. Does anyone have any recommendations of brands and models of stage pianos???
I've been looking at the Yamaha P-70 and have found a deal on the internet for it at £403 inc postage - is this vaguely good?
Also looked at korg and roland but have no idea what sort or reputation they have? The only requirement I have is that that the piano has a tranposing button, (handy things for acompanying singers!).
I've noticed that yamaha are bringing out this absolutely dirt cheap stage piano type thing without full size keys but specially designed action to simulate real piano keys. Anyone know much about it???

Thanks!

You may need to include an amp in your budget, depending on what you are planning to use the piano for. I'd be highly suspicious of anything that didn't have proper sized keys!

I would heartily recommend the Roland RD170.

The P70 is fine in general, BUT it will depend on what you are intending to use it for. Shop around a bit before you buy and make sure that you get one you're happy with: I looked at the P70 at first but ended up with a Roland FP2 (for various reasons principally 1. it felt better and 2. it was slightly shop-soiled so was discounted to be cheaper than the P70).

n.b. memo to self - must stop putting commas before conjunctions ("and", "but", etc), it's so tedious to take them out afterwards!

My friend owns some sort of ProKeys effort - I think it's an 88. I shall ask him what he thinks of it

I have a M-audio prokeys 88x like this:-

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&...sa=N&tab=wf

I really like it because it has the same amount of octaves as a real piano and is semi-weighted so it feels like a piano. It is also really light for carrying around although it does need an amp/speakers or headphones as it has no internal speakers. I actually bought mine off ebay after researching prices and was very happy with the service.

EDIT: and it transposes!!!

I thought that this was the correct punctuation anyway!

Thanks guys, yup I think I'll go do some trying out somewhere, could do with somewhere that does woodwind stuff to actually as I need to go try out some mouthpieces...... shall have to have a look. Ta v much folks x

That's the one!

Can you get covers for stage pianos? My brother needs one...anyone who can point me in the right direction?

Just found this place:-

http://www.pianocoversonline.co.uk/

A friend of mine made one for her husband out of an old sleeping bag!! Extra padding for protection