Hi,

I have a Yamaha U3 in the living room and I am very happy with it, however my family complains about constantly having to hear me practice 2 hours in a go!

Especially if I am just learning the notes of my pieces, I think a keyboard should be fine to stimulate the muscle memory, so I could learn notes and do light practice everyday on the keyboard, or sometimes late at night when I feel like practicing; of course, then I could transfer onto the real acoustic piano.

I was wondering if there are any keyboards with weighted keys under ?100? I don't mind secondhand, and don't want something too flashy with a lot of features like metronome and different tones, just 88 keys to get the job done.

Thanks

You will be hard pushed, even at second hand prices, to find one worth playing at under 100.

There are a few casio's around, but imo they sound horrible (I've had a few people disagree with me, but also a lot who agree!). The weighting doesn't feel all that good either.

My advice, which you probably don't want to hear, is relax the budget by a couple hundred and find yourself a yamaha p series (85, 95, 155). 155 is too expensive so don't bother with that. 85 should be the cheapest but I can't seem to find it anywhere at the moment. I used to own a p95 and have to say that it worked out pretty well (now have a clp 470 clav)..

P95

P95 are usually regarded as a bit of a bargain due to price/quality and a good digital piano for those on a budget. (no frame or seat though). Still they are a lot more expensive then a cheaper keyboard.

Pedals are probably going to be an issue (you'll have to pay extra to get a half decent one). And you will get different tones and probably a metronome (they all have them nowadays) as a bit of a bonus


In general though you are probably looking for a stage piano.

Good luck though!

You will probably find most 'cheap' digital keyboards quite nasty compared to the U3. I have a U3X and my digital is a Kawai MP8 - not cheap but still not as good as a real piano.

You almost certainly want to go secondhand. As Yoshifumu says it might be better to stretch a bit to 200-300. I recently sold an old Roland RD500 for less than 100, but it was 15 years old and did have a few dead keys that I had swapped out the far ends of the board.

Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, Korg are usually pretty good - I too would generally avoid Casios. You might be able to find an unwanted Clavinova on eBay (the school where I work has a knackered old Clavinova that I used for Grease rehearsals and I actually grew quite fond of its slightly wonky keys).

If you find a model with dead keys (ie keys that are stuck down) it would be worth researching whether you can swap the hammers. On my old Roland the plastic hammers would age over time, and the ones that got most use/abuse went first (middle C, B etc). I was able to open the keyboard, take the hammers out and swap it with a working one from the top end of the keyboard (who plays in the top or bottom octave anyway?)

I think the cheapest weighted will be the Casio CDP-100 which you should be able to find for a shade under ?300. I believe/suspect this is a repackaged version of the Casio Privia from two series back.

You then need to get into the ?400-500 range for the Yamaha P95, Korg SP170/250, and the Casio Privia PX130/135.

I've never played one of the Korgs, but I prefer my Privia keyboard to the P95's keyboard, but there isn't a lot in it, and obviously the best thing to do (if possible) is to try them out and decide which you prefer.

As the others have said, you will struggle to find something that satisfies you for less than 100 pounds, although if you keep your eye on eBay you might get lucky. Try looking for auctions based in the UK that complete at unsociable hours, and stay up late to try to "snipe" a bargain.

But if you can stretch to over 200 then you might be able to get one of the Yamaha P- models, any of which would meet your needs.

My feeling is you won't get anything decent for less than about 200GBP. Digital pianos have moved on an awful lot and prices have come down considerably. The cheapest I recommend to my pupils is a Yamaha NP30 which currently retails at ?199.

I've heard a lot of great things about the np30, and it's a lot cheaper than other digital pianos. However I do shudder when people call it a digital piano. At less than 88 keys, and not being fully weighted, it's a bit more like a high quality keyboard.

But yes if you can sacrifice the weight and number of keys it's meant to be good.

True, but it is one better than a keyboard and given the money people have, it's a good compromise. The reality is that you're not likely to get a 'proper' digital piano for less than ?400.

That is simply not true.

Go to eBay, log in, select UK only, and show completed listings only, and search for digital piano.

It is true that the MAJORITY of good instruments go for over 400 GBP, but there are also quite a few good instruments (88 keys,. fully weighted) from Yamaha, Korg, Casio and Roland that sell for between 150 and 250, even including the occasional Clavinova. Somebody is getting these "proper" digital pianos for under 400 GBP.

You have to know the specifications to be sure that what you are getting is what you want, and you have to be patient, bidding up to your own limit repeatedly on different instruments (not at the same time of course) until you get lucky on one, and get it for a bargain price.

There is a whole set of skills to successful bidding on eBay, but some web surfing will quickly find what you need to know.

Sorry, I should have added in 'new'. Of course, if you're happy with a secondhand instrument, then you're inevitably going to get one which is cheaper