Casio - Seems like a great deal

[Mark Schmieder]

Cool! Hope it goes well.

 

Yeah, everything else is icing -- this thing is a steal just for the keybed action and acoustic piano alone. Anything else that is worth using (ethnic sounds, e-pianos, the sequencer, patterns, etc.) is like a bonus.

[AUSSIEKEYS]

man I just sold my PX 300 20 minutes ago, two people wanting it,within 10 minutes of each other

 

I am actually sad to see it go, old faithful, loved it when everyone was poo haaing me for having a casio...well they have proved they are good...was tempted to keep it as a spare, but hey it was worth selling money wise....good resale.

 

the 330 is definately better as I finally got a direct A/B comparison, but man the 300 is still impressive as the first of the line.

[Mark Schmieder]

Grr, my PX-330 arrived late this afternoon... in pieces.

 

That's what I get for ordering a keyboard from Musician's Friend.

 

Based on my earlier similar experience with the Studiologic VMK188plus, when they told me they'd refund but instead sent a replacement six months later after I'd already made different choices, I'm in a quandry about whether to demand a replacement or a refund.

 

The right hand side is totally cracked into pieces. Most of the keys in the bottom two to three octaves (and a few others as well) do not work. I could probably fix the keys myself, but if I open it up then I disqualify the return.

 

There was no foam padding in the box, and it wasn't double-boxed. The keyboard was bouncing back and forth inside the box with no protection, all the way from Kansas City.

[Joe Muscara]

Ugh. At least they should have new ones in stock unlike the VMK, if you decide to go that way.

 

It seems like the shipping companies like to beat up these big boxes when sent for individual home delivery. (I don't know if you remember my RD-700GX story from 2008. [My pics are currently not loading because my server is acting up. Hopefully by the time you read this])

[Mark Schmieder]

Yep, I'm thinking it's just not a good idea to order keyboards on-line. The stores have their own delivery mechanism, and workers who specifically know how to handle musical instruments.

 

I've decided to request a refund vs. a re-order. I have upcoming gigs and can't afford any "surprises". At this point I may just return to the original plan of the PC3X vs. the PC3, and deal with a separate Digital Piano later -- bought in a store and carted home on my own.

[Mark Schmieder]

I'll give a quick review in spite of half of the keys not working, as I did at least get to review the sound set, the patterns, and other features that distinguish the PX-330 from the PX-130 and PX-830.

 

My take-away from the review is that the PX-130 will do, for most people. The quality of the 1/4" and MIDI jacks is not on the level of Kurzweil, so I don't think that's a huge selling point vs. using a Y-splitter on the headphone jack. If you truly need MIDI cabling at a gig, of course, you have no choice but the PX-330 as that is the only model with MIDI vs. USB.

 

Of the extra sounds, the rarer ethnic instruments from East Asia and the Middle East are actually fairly impressive, and of much better quality than the GM set or the other additional non-piano sounds. The Indian instruments also seem of higher quality than what is typically found in keyboard workstations. The rest of the sound set is cheesy in my opinion though (organs, etc.). But surely no one would be buying a Digital Piano for that anyway?

 

The patterns were a surprise -- the Latin patterns are actually quite good and usable, as are some of the other ethnic patterns. The "classical" patterns are, uh, sort of "classical meets disco". :-) There's a nice variety of jazz patterns covering quite a range of jazz styles. But I think these would be more useful for a student learning how to play in those styles, as an accompanying pattern, than as songwriting blocks. Just my opinion.

 

The keybed action is noisier than I thought, but no noisier than Studiologic or Kurzweil or any other brand. Probably slightly less noisy, in fact, and certainly the sturdiest in terms of side-to-side motion (NONE!) and quick return (excellent escapement). The action is a little heavier than I remember, in fact. Keys are not slippery but aren't textured either. A nice compromise between a utilitarian feel and a luxury feel.

 

As for the piano sound, which is mostly what this instrument is about for the majority of us, it is really quite good, and only breaks down beyond fortissimo. The only anomaly I discovered is when simultaneously playing C3 and E4 -- there is some phasiness there for some reason, and I didn't find this with any other note combination. A minor quibble as it only is noticeable if you're holding the notes (and no others) for a few seconds.

 

All in all, my opinion of the Privia x30 series as an excellent Digital Piano, has improved upon further inspection, but I feel the extra sounds and features are not as useful for a pro musician as a beginning player, which is what they seem designed for anyway (if you read how they're described in the manual). So these do remain excellent bang-for-buck if seen as primarily addressing the need for a good piano sound accompanied by great keybed action.

 

I'll probably play the PC3X again on Monday morning as a reminder of whether its keybed action and piano sound pass as main go-to's for those purposes (otherwise I'll stick with the PC3 choice, as that is a nice heft semi-weighted action anyway).

 

If Musician's Friend will only replace vs. refund, I'll probably still stick with PX-330 vs. PX-130 as I like the flexibility of being able to use the MIDI at a gig if I want the weighted action for all of my parts.

[Mark Schmieder]

Just got off the phone with Musician's Friend. They do a good job with customer relations, except when there's a bureaucratic screw-up like with the VMK188plus a couple of years back. I think they're just so big that they eat the occasional loss rather than invest additional labour in carefully packing everything.

 

I have to cover the insurance for shipping it back, in case of further damage, which is kind of bogus in a way, but the replacement unit, which could ba a few weeks away after processing etc., should be a drop-ship with all original Casio packaging intact (unlike this one).

 

I do have the option to call and cancel the replacement for a refund, at any time before they have processed the return to that stage. And I may opt for that after re-trying the PC3X on Monday, since I have an option on one locally and could grab it ASAP.

 

My life is full of changes and surprises lately -- I have returned to jazz for the first time in ten years, in terms of regular involvement with the genre in a performing group vs. occasional one-offs.

 

The originals scene is near dead, and the 80's cover band scene is dying or morphing into a 20-something only-play-the-songs-thatClearChannel-is-playing-on-the-80s-nostalgia-program crowd. And gigs in the SF Bay Area evaporated last year, with lots of last-minute reneging on deals. So it's a good time to return to music for music's sake alone, working with advanced musicians who are fun to be around and not tripping on any games.

 

That means my needs are now focused more on acoustic piano and upright bass as well as occasional woodwinds. How times change. Things seem to cycle every ten years or so.

[AUSSIEKEYS]

mark

very sorry to hear all that'

for that reason alone, I dont buy mail order, how dare they ship it that way,

I bought mine personally from a shop unopened and in correct packaging, the correct packaging is very good and should survive transport, the internal foam is enough to ensure a safe delivery.

 

I would persevere with it and if you get your money back why not buy from a bricks and morter shop..

 

its about time there is a good reason to buy from a shop...no busted deliveries..

 

the extra $ might be worth the anguish

 

its real1y not fair if so many companies send broken goods, it reflects on the product...it's turned you a little off casio even tough its not casios fault...

 

perhaps Mike should have a talk to this company, because it definately sours people to buying a product.

 

regard the 330...i definately prefer the 330 over the 130...I have mentioned previously the jacks are not strong feeling and I do mamby pamby mine by wraping my leads around my stands so if someone trips over a lead it wont pull on the jacks

 

regards the keyboard action noises on most keyboards..the 330 is so much more quieter than the 300, and this is one aspect that won me over from my 300.

 

try out a local shop, maybe we should all go back to mum and pop...believe it or not casios are in nearly every Sydney music shop and I dare say every Aussie music shop...even the guitar shops...its about time online shops got their act together, I hear so many horror stories just on this site.

 

I bought a sound module second hand and rather than posting it the guy sent it via a courier [as he was a second hand music broker who has items of clients posted on his own shop website, these are shipped direct from his clients using his own couriers]]...the courier gets to my door, and presents the box to me by dropping it from shoulder height onto concrete, with force...and says, here's your package mate...

 

never again with a courier...i'd rather trust post office.if any one.at least they have to answer to a higher authority.

 

good luck mate..i feel the casio is worth getting,

[AUSSIEKEYS]

It seems like the shipping companies like to beat up these big boxes when sent for individual home delivery.

 

joe i feel so angry reading your story...this is really rediculous...the incident of reported damage really is too much..I am so sorry you had to cope with this,

 

what about if it was a rare vintage keyboard, that parts are not available ,and repair is just not an option...a rare keyboard gone to rarity heaven.

 

It's really too risky to trust these companies, but what are our options...self delivery, thats it.

 

by the way, your thread doesnt seem to be finished...is there another thread stating the result of your follow ups to the delivery company

[Mark Schmieder]

The one I bought was listed as "like new", customer return (didn't like the product and wanted something else). That seemed low risk, and probably would have been, except MF clearly didn't re-pack it the way that Casio had originally protected it with foam suspension in all corners.

 

Probably the original customer's fault and MF may not be instructed on how to deal with such situations. I thought I'd do OK because I had made a similar purchase last year of a returned tenor sax and it was packed properly and suffered no damage.

 

But you are right, I was so angry that I wanted to hate the kayboard when I played it last night (sticking to the middle octaves, which are the only ones that work). I'm going to play it some more tonight now that the anger and anxiety has died down, as I don't trust my reaction from last night.

 

Mostly, I think I will ask for the refund instead, and hope they don't then re-charge me and send another after I've already bought one in a local store. That is pretty close to what happened with the VMK188plus, although it wasn't available so I bought something else instead and then was surprised when my card was re-charged $700 six months later and a new one arrived at my door.

 

Overall, my anxiety will be less if I call them back and say I need a refund because I have a gig and need to buy something at their Guitar Center store ASAP rather than wait a few weeks for processing etc. I have the money so can deal separately with the anxiety about the refund.

 

I wish these people would use USPS instead of UPS or even FedEx Ground, as USPS does such a better job of handling fragile stuff.

 

 

[Mark Schmieder]

I packed this thing 20x better than MF did, for sure. But UPS wouldn't let me insure it as they say that can't be done on RA's. I'm sure MF knew that, so they better not mess with me. I'll try not to be anxious during this period of return, but I'm definitely going to request a refund vs. replacement at this point.

 

I'm buying a Kurzweil PC3x from a new forum member on Friday. Really looking forward to it. Hopefully the editor license transfers or they don't care when I fill out used info at the registration site at Soundtower.

 

The PC3x action is lighter than I remembered, so will be fine for all the other sounds, and 88 keys is better for splits anyway, when covering a lot of parts at a gig.

 

I may still pick up a Privia later for the home, as it is very impressive overall. I do think its piano sounds more natural than the Kurzweil's, but am hoping they'll add an expansion ROM that is piano-dedicated. I can live with the PC3x pianos though.

 

Maybe I'll get lucky and win the Yamaha CP-1 in Sweetwater's sweepstakes. :-) I mostly just don't see that as a gigging instrument due to size/weight, but it would make a great home digital piano.

 

The Privia series is what I recommend to everyone on a budget or who wants something light enough to take to gigs. They've really struck a good balance of pro vs. consumer needs with this series.

[MoodyBluesKeys]

Mark,

SoundTower won't care if you got your PC3X new or used, they are not charging users for the software (I have no idea if Kurzweil paid them for the design or not). Highly recommend you look over the Sonik forums for problems in using the editor for certain functions as opposed to performing those functions directly on the Kurz. The SoundTower people are working on the problems, but have not yet released another version (may be timed to the Kurz OS release - the editor has to very intimately couple to the OS).

 

Between the PC3X built-in pianos and the Bosie and Steiner from Quantum Leap - I'm pretty satisfied with piano sounds now. I do wind up using the internal sounds much more frequently than the QL.

 

 

[AUSSIEKEYS]

Man the upset that an online purchase can put someone through is just not right.

 

I understand your position on this and hope the new purchase makes up for the last.

 

I guess I will continue to avoid online purchases of large items, as the risk is too high, for instance yesterday I found a used Alesis Andromeda on ebay for buy it now, was trying to work out if I should buy it as it was 12 hours drive away,although he would send it, I thought I would rather drive there for that than risk any damage, anyway by the time I got home it had already sold, so problem solved but by coincidence I had bought some vintage car parts in melbourne that a friend picked up for me yesterday so a trip will be necessary soon anyway.

 

So for such a rare board in Aussie I think I would do the drive, but one will surface in Sydney sometime as one did 6 months ago so I will bide my time.But as a drive would solve two pickups in one trip, I should have jumped at the alesis,

 

of coarse its not always possible to pick up but you would think a professional business used to sending keyboards would get it right...for future reference, what is their name, Musician's Fiend?

[Mark Schmieder]

Yep. I haven't found SW does the best packing job either though. I have better luck with lesser-known pro-only specialty houses, who usually have better prices and good service to boot. Maybe because they don't have to deal with the riff-raff.

[acidolem]

I ship stuff via USPS and they have done a great job over the last 10 years. Packing is very important too. Double boxing never disappoints.

[Mark Schmieder]

Double-boxing, suspending heavy items on foam blocks that wrap around the corners, doing the same at the top, padding the bottom with peanuts and the sides either with same or with those newish air-filled plastic pockets, does wonders for an intact delivery.

 

USPS is by far the best of the three major delivery agencies. Unfortunately most businesses require you to use UPS or FedEx.

[Mark Schmieder]

I received my full refund today, which was a relief.

 

They got some of the money back anyway, as I ordered my soprano sax yesterday. Now I have three voices each for clarinet and sax. I had a 1930's soprano sax years ago that was too difficult in intonation for a part-time player. Looking forward to the new one.