Has anyone got a Casio AP 33 digital piano? My Mum's thinking of getting one and we were wondering what you thought of it.

i dont have a Casio, but i do have have and can very strongly recommend the Yamaha P120. i played loads of digital pianos and keyboards before i decided to buy one, and the yamaha P120 always came out tops. i like it for it's amazing sound and touch.

ive played a clavinova three times the price but still think the P120 has the better quality sound.

ive played quite a few of roland digital pianos, pretty decent sound but feels like your playing a cheap keyboard from argos!!

ive played a casio calviano (or summit like that) and was not impressed at all, poor sound and bad key response, thats when i made the discovery "don't casio make calculators"

anyone else got a P120??

my advice would be, play lots of digital pianos and keyboards, find one your comfortable and you like the sound and touch of. and play lots of styles on them to see what holds out on all genres

all the best with your purchase

JB

I am looking into gettting a digital paino. I am not a pianist - though would like to learn - but find I need to bash out the tune sometimes for my singing, and it would be a great help to have one for theory and harmony work.

In view of the fact I would also like to learn to play, I am looking at a Clavinova CLP120 or CLP130. Anyone got any advice or other opinions?

The advice to go and play a few it a bit awkward for me!!!

Emma - I've had a Yamaha clavinova for about 8 years.

Although perhaps nothing feels quite like a real acoustic piano, I find the action and sound are pretty close. Believe me, I have played some keyboards that I was glad to walk away from ! but this is definitely not a cheap keyboard, it feels quite close to the real thing, and I have been very pleased with it. Small bonus - they don't need tuning of course!

I rarely perform, (when I do it's usually on the organ) and I use the clavinova for practice and teaching.

Sorry Carys - haven't played the Casio so can't comment.

Maggie

Maggie, do you mind me asking which model you have? What sort of things should be looking out for?

As you say, they are not cheap... but I would not want to replace it in a hurry if I should take up piano. I'm not pretending I'm going to be a genius on piano after a few years, but wouldn't want to find that spending an extra couple of hundred now would have saved a lot later.

QUOTE

Maggie, do you mind me asking which model you have?

Had to go and look !!
It's a CVP 87A. If it's still available it will have been updated by now - technology is old after a few years! But I think basically the clavinova as an instrument is generally a fairly safe buy - one or two of my students have cheaper digital pianos (not by Yamaha or Roland) and they find mine much more satisfying to play.

The sound has to be pleasant - not tinny, synthetic or obviously "electronic".
And the tone should be controllable - you need to feel it's responding to your finger pressure in the way a traditional piano would, so you can do convincing crescendos and diminuendos.
It may have a rhythm section too - which can be a lot of fun, although it 's not essential.

It really would be worth a trip to your nearest big town if you possibly can manage it, to try out one or two different kinds. Otherwise, do you know anyone at a school where they have one you could try ?
Hope this helps ...

Maggie

QUOTE (maggiemay @ Aug 31 2004, 09:16 PM)

It really would be worth a trip to your nearest big town if you possibly can manage it, to try out one or two different kinds. Otherwise, do you know anyone at a school where they have one you could try ?

Thanks Maggie. I have a couple of weeks holiday now, so might go to Plymouth or Exeter, but I feel a bit odd going into a shop asking about an instruemnt I can't even play!

Although I go into school for my work occasionally, none of the schools round here have one, as far as I know. Unfortunately they are not big on music here - the secondary school has a samba band, but doesn't even teach clarinet as far as I know. Drum lesons and singing are the only things on offer and it's supposed to excel in performing arts...

I have a Yamaha CLP 150 and it's very realistic (not quite the real thing but very nearly there). Having tried in the shop the lower models of CLPs I found that the three-level sampling and the key-off sounds make the CLP150 far more realistic than the lower CLP models and well worth paying the extra money for (the feedback from the sound is far better which means that you can get more subtle things whilst learning and hence it is more like learning on a real piano). I can't comment in detail on the CVP range: I didn't consider them because the main feature they offer over the CLPs (for extra cost obviously) is additional voices, and I didn't want those as I wanted to use it primarily as a piano; the CLPs have many many voices anyway so I really didn't want any more! (Having said that it turns out that the harpsichord voice is excellent and quite fun to play with (that one comes with the CLPs too)).

One final thing: I can strongly recommend Chamberlain Music, I got mine off them over the internet: there prices are very good and they're a reliable company (they do charge £50 P&P for the Clavinovas but are still way cheaper than anywhere else) I don't have any financial interest in Chamberlain by the way . Even if you would rather buy from a local shop (I suggest that you use one of them to at least play the pianos and see what you think) write down the prices that you can get from Chamberlain and take them to use as a bargaining tool, the shops will often come down in price from the RRP and often come down more if you tell them that you're going to buy it from somewhere else .

Hi..

I have a Technics PX 664 and i love it to pieces!! I tried various digial pianos i the shop when i bought mine and i found the Technics to have a better sound than the Roland and Yamahas. Just go to the shop and try all the ones in your price range and pick the one you feel most comfortable playing and like the most because it will be you playing the piano in the end and not the salesman!!!

Lots of luv

Teabag

P.S Have fun piano shopping !!!