NKB4691

I'm curious why you're averse to scotch tape. I've used magic tape for decades and never had any problems with it. I tape one side, usually the back side.

Seeing the thread here on the P-145, and having seen YouTube reviews on the P-145 out of England and Australia(?), I've been watching for it to become available in the United States. Last night on one of the US musical instrument sites I saw ... the P-143 show up as "New". Looks like the main difference between the two, other than a few voices are different, is that the P-143 doesn't support the 3-pedal unit, only a sustain pedal? Am I correct on this? If so, does anyone know Yamaha's logic in producing and selling a "less-than" model in the US vs. other parts of the world? Of course, if I'm wrong please let me know. Thanks

Thanks Mitch!

Swamp (evaporative) coolers don't work well in humid environments. They work well in dry environments, but do blow humid air. My experience is with units that sat outside the house and blew the cooled air inside.

I've thought a lot about this recently with posts on this forum and others, with people asking/talking about things like "which (x) feels/sounds most a real (y)?". Very similar to when I played guitar and people talked about which guitars/amps had the "best" tone. To me, it's mostly subjective and comes down to what YOU like. If you're searching for something that feels/sounds like what you have in mind, great! But OTOH, if you have the cheapest piece of gear, like the way it sounds and feels, and can get past any stigma that others may place on it, you can probably make some really great music if you spend your time focusing on the playing. One thing I will say regarding "getting past the stigma": Confidence plays a huge part in just about anything. If you have something that you think sounds great, but you think others look down on, it may reduce your confidence, which could impact your playing. Also, people being the way they are, even if you don't think about it and make great music, some people may think less of it because they perceive your gear to be inferior. Not much you can do about that other than not worry about it.

I noticed that this morning on SW and was wondering the same thing. Went looking for answers but couldn't find anything.

Rick has a large following and introduces music/bands/players, both current and past, to potentially millions of people who otherwise never would have heard of them.

Finance Director for an advertising agency. Also the favorite grandparent 😀 to three grandkids 3-and-under to my two wonderful children!

Go armed with enough info to guide her toward a decision. It could be quite overwhelming for her.

The E373 is a good choice. I believe it's pretty much the same as the EW310 but with 61 keys instead of 76. She should be able to get pretty far with that board.

Depending on how long she'll be visiting, you could buy her a nice one for home and a used one locally off Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for less than $100 that would allow her to stay engaged while she's visiting.

Part of the decision depends on what she leans toward musically. If she specifically wants to play piano, then lean towards something with "hammer-action" and 88 keys, which is going to be more expensive for something with decent quality. If she leans more toward a mix of piano/organ/electric piano/synthesizer, then something with synth-action or semi-weighted keys will be a good choice. I play the mix noted above. My preference is 76 synth/semi-weighted keys. I don't like hammer-action keys for organ/synthesizer. 61 keys is a little limited. It's hard to find synth action in an 88 key board, so 76 unweighted keys is the sweet spot for me. I have a 61 key Yamaha, a 76 key Casio, and an 88 key Casio digital piano (in addition to still having the accordion my parents bought new for me in 1973, lol), so I have most of the bases covered. Make sure you get something with velocity sensitive keys. i.e. if you hit the key harder (faster) it's louder, softer (slower) it's quieter. Something without velocity sensitive keys is closer to a toy than a true musical instrument for learning and will probably discourage her due to the lack of dynamics. Also, make sure you get a good quality board like something you'll find on Sweetwater (Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Casio, etc.) vs. the generic stuff you might find on Amazon or eBay. Jeremy See's recommendations are probably a good guide. Also, spring for the AC adapter if the board doesn't come with one. You can burn through batteries pretty quickly. I started off on organ when I was young and then my parents put me in accordion lessons (cringe!). Playing on a real piano or a digital piano has never been a problem for me.

The short electric piano break in Tom Petty "Breakdown".

Hammond XK-2 I've been looking for a while for my next 'board. Everything I looked at, my first questions was "how good is the Hammond B-3 sound?". I was at an Open Jam last Friday night and a guy brought one of these and absolutely rocked it! I started checking prices on different sites and found this one in barely played, near perfect condition less than two hours away. I drove over Saturday afternoon and bought it. Holy cow, 41 lbs! I'm digging it nonetheless.

I'd like to hear more about this as I am considering getting one.