Thanks for all the responses. I generally see positive comments about Nord pianos, see I was expecting to see responses along the line of 'the Nord pianos sound amazing, how can you not like them?'. So interesting to see that a number of people have the same experience is me: good for listening, more challenging for playing.
I'll play around with the EQ some more. I'm also tempted to go back to the Bright Piano. Although I don't like it's sound so much solo, I have previously found that it works best in a rock band setting.
I've seen mention a few time of a Mono button on Nord keyboards, but that's not on the Nord Stage 2 EX - right?
To respond to a few other questions/comments: My other keyboard is a Yamaha CP4, on which I use the CFX Grand. When playing with a band, I'm hearing the Nord through a Laney monitor, and I've always been happy with the sound of that monitor.
Neil