Yamaha CK61 and CK88

[mrk7421]

I ordered a CK88 on Amazon for $ 999.00. Well of course this order got screwed up. The order went to a music store in MIssouri  called Palen Music and they refused to honor this order.

 

My first experience with Amazon. What a nightmare trying to communicate with them. Not sure where my money went at this point.

 

I could possibly start another thread about dealing with Amazon. When you call customer service you get the somebody in the Phillipines with very thick accents...

 

Businesses are closing all around me and one very possible reason is because it is cheaper to buy things on Amazon. My trustworthy local auto parts store is going out of business....Amazon has certainly affected this.

 

When it comes to customer service , Amazon sucks. To talk to them you have to Log in with passwords ....security codes....and trying to figure out what they are even saying through bad phone connections and thick accents

 

I made a huge mistake trying to snag a bargain on this. Lesson learned!

 

[Docbop]

You knew they had drastically miss priced the item so you knew you were gambling they wouldn't catch it.   Most big items like that Amazon is just the POS for some other store sometime small sometime big like Musicians Friend.   A small store can't eat that big of a pricing mistake.   As for Amazon customer service I'll say something getting a phone number can be hard to find that seems to be a issue with modern business in general these days.    But the times I have contacted Amazon they were very helpful and resolved my issue in the one call.    Sometimes they took a bit longer than I expected to get back to me, but they always got back to me.  

 

I've been a Amazon customer since 1998 and overall it's been a good experience.  

[octa]

Told a friend about Amazon "deal" and he rolled the dice on this $999 too, hoping for CK88. CK61 arrived a couple days ago and luckily he seems to be real happy with 61. 

[mrk7421]

I was not aware that this is how Amazon works.... that they broker for other small stores. So Palen Music and I were both caught in the middle of this.

 

The problem is communicating with Amazon. It is really really difficult. I would NEVER buy an expensive item from them again. I didn't know it would be this crazy.

 

Bottom line...they advertised a Yamaha CK88 for 999. Of course people like me would be tempted by this.....I have documentation .....but the refund has gotten screwed up because it is coming from someone other than Amazon.

[konaboy]

hopefully of some help if trying one out for the first time!

 

[EscapeRocks]

1 hour ago, mrk7421 said:

I was not aware that this is how Amazon works.... that they broker for other small stores. So Palen Music and I were both caught in the middle of this.

 

The problem is communicating with Amazon. It is really really difficult. I would NEVER buy an expensive item from them again. I didn't know it would be this crazy.

 

Bottom line...they advertised a Yamaha CK88 for 999. Of course people like me would be tempted by this.....I have documentation .....but the refund has gotten screwed up because it is coming from someone other than Amazon.

I found the listing.

 

Whomever entered the listing mixed the CK61 and CK88.   When you scroll thru the listing for the CK88 for$999, the picture is of the CK61, and down in the description it says 61 keys.

 

On the listing for the CK61, it says $1499, is the picture of the CK88, and down in the meat it says 61 keys.

I'm sorry this happened to you, but the $999 should have made you really look thru the entire listing.

 

As far as Palen Music, I can't find where they have a presence on Amazon.  Also, Amazon doesn't randomly list things for sale by stores without specifically saying that somewhere in the listing.

 

For example, it might says "sold by Palen"  "Shipped by Amazon"

 

Lastly, I have never had Amazon NOT come thru when there's been an issue.   I've had lost package, and a wrong package, and in each case Amazon took care of it promptly.  In the case of the lost item, they immediately shipped a new one, before and without worrying about getting the lost one back.

[Stefan011]

1 hour ago, konaboy said:

hopefully of some help if trying one out for the first time!

 

Thanks! Very informative video and the interface looks pretty clever and easy to use. Like they stole the best parts of Nord and Kurzweil and added colours to it 🙂

[Sam Mullins]

I’ve had my CK88 for a few weeks and was ok but not thrilled with action. But was in chicago this weekend, went to guitar center and tried out much of the competition in this price range and have to say I’m happy with my decision. The Roland offerings ( fantom and a juno) were particularly awful in comparison IMO .

[SonicKeysII]

Did you play the a Roland Juno DS88 and found that board's action worse than the CK88?  I am still up the air as to whether to upgrade my rig.  I am using a Casio PXS560 as a bottom board and I dare say I like the action for piano and electric piano playing.  A couple years ago, I bought a Korg Grandstage as my one trick pony board but I found my hands hurting after playing heavy rock piano on it after a couple of hours.  (I do not experience the same problem with the Casio board).  Now, listening to some of your comments, it may be better to have a harder action and hence weightier board than to fall into the trap of buying a lighter board where the piano action will be too much of a compromise for those of us that play a lot of piano and less synth stuff.  I dragged around the Yamaha S-90 in a hardshell case when I was much younger and decided that board was too heavy to lug around.  For sake of comparison, I would be interested in the difference in the action between a Yamaha MODX+8 and the CK88.

The width of the board is also an issue with me.  My Casio PX560 fits in the back of my medium sized SUV without folding the seat down.  The Yamaha CP and YC models weigh about 41 pounds.  The Yamaha Modx8+ weighs less than 32 pounds.  Maybe I need to get in better shape and lug around a heavier board or maybe Modx+8 is the perfect compromise for me.  The CK boards win in the context of ease of use and lighter weight.  The Modx8+ kills the CK in terms of sounds with the exception of the organ.  

[SonicKeysII]

Perhaps, a Modx8+ on the bottom and the CK61 on the top would be a great new setup.  You get to mix an overly complex board with great sounds on the bottom with a simple practical light weight board on the top with drawbars where you can integrate an IPad Hammond clone. 

[HammondDave]

…and as of date the “mistake” on the Amazon listing is still there. 
 

I too am a frequent user of Amazon and have never had a problem contacting them or having them refuse a return. And remember, if you pay by credit card you have even more rights/protections.  

[Sam Mullins]

10 hours ago, SonicKeysII said:

Did you play the a Roland Juno DS88 and found that board's action worse than the CK88? For sake of comparison, I would be interested in the difference in the action between a Yamaha MODX+8 and the CK88.

Yes it was DS88. These things are personal taste but I found it sluggish and sloppy. 

MODX8+ supposedly has same GHS action as CK88. As others have noted there seems to be some variability across Yamaha models that have GHS.  But my casual observation was that these two were close. 

[LarsHarner2]

I feel as though Musicians Friend/Guitar Center are better for such purchases and have a better return policy. They gave me 15% off the CK61 so I got it for $850 + tax.

On top of that 45 days out I am getting $72.50 (8 percent) in rewards that I will use towards some monitors.

Was able to do the same with the Nautilus- at the time it was 20% they offered.

[Keyboardbill]

On 5/20/2023 at 11:39 AM, Rand L said:

Voxfan, under Drive, there is Rotary A and Rotary B with a depth adjustment only, controls drive, no rate control for speed. Rotary B is a better B3 sounding Leslie.  In Effects, there is a simple rotary option that is the same as Rotary A in the drive section.  Effects does have a rate knob, and at rate 64, seems to be the default used in Drive.  With Rotary Speed on high, it does sound better at a rate of about 30 to 35.  The problem would be that rate is to slow when changing back to slow speed, not to even mention again that it is the weaker of the 2 rotary options.

Overall, the H patches, for Hammond, is the weakest part of the board.  Maybe used at a practice or on a 3 lowest drawbars and on slow rotary only song.  If you have an Ipad, or Iphone, with interface built in so no worrying about audio out, you can map all the sliders and knobs to any CC control, and even separate lower and upper drawbar CC numbers.  For any buttons, except for Rotary speed which is #9, it still uses Sysex, so you would need a translator like Keystage if you had to have the exact same buttons control what it says. An example for B3X, there are 18 non drawbar CC sliders and knobs and 2 foot pedal CC#2 f you don't want to go down the Keystage route to control Vib/Chr and Pec and the other midi controllers listed.

 

 

[Keyboardbill]

I tried changing leslie sim but nothing worked well at all. I found performing in a 3+ piece band the leslie sim is OK. However, as a 1 man band, not so good.

 

All Yamaha has to do is unlock the leslie sim mods that are in the YC66 and problem solved.

 

Hopefully in the next update that will occur.

[Keyboardbill]

Typo - should reference YC61 - not YC66.

[16251]

I finally got a chance to try cK88. First minute I did not like action but after about 5 minutes I warmed up to it. I like action more than CP4 I owned. If I was my young self again playing clubs and weddings it would work out great. The one feature I wish my ES520 had is the 3-layer capability. 

[FuzzyPants]

 

[Fleer]

Hammond around 17:00

[Fleer]

Ordering the 61. 

[FatFingers]

9 hours ago, Fleer said:

Ordering the 61. 

 Thanks to the detailed comparisons and opinions laid out in this thread (or no thanks, depending if my spouse's voice could be heard), I did the same just a few hours ago.  I have plenty of outstanding keyboards but all of those are all too heavy for me to consider dragging down the street for a quick session with pals and I needed something lightweight.  

[ImproKeys]

Bought a CK61 on Thursday. I went to the store to buy a YC61 but ended up with the CK. I needed a lightweight board that I could use stand alone for rehearsals and as a do-it-all-except-B3-board in a band where I mostly play a Crumar Mojo Classic.

A while ago I had a MODX 7 and sold it because of the action. To me the CK61 really is an improvement.
I am coming from classical piano studies and am very happy to say that the CK keybed lets me play piano in a way that I can feel comfortable on the average gig.

 

Another advantage over the YC is the much broader palette of sounds (even if it is short in the piano and ep department). I am very used to the Yamaha sounds, hauling around a S90 ES for many years.

 

Thanks for this very informative thread which came to my mind when I was checking out the YC.

[Adan]

Having used the CK61 on a few gigs now, I still find playing piano on it a bit difficult, but it’s clearly better than the MODX61 in that regard.  To be fair, I’m never happy playing piano on non-hammer action keys.  

[Sam Mullins]

11 hours ago, ImproKeys said:

 

Another advantage over the YC is the much broader palette of sounds (even if it is short in the piano and ep department). I am very used to the Yamaha sounds, hauling around a S90 ES for many years.

 

This is the main reason I chose the CK88 over YC73; just covered a lot more of the sonic territory I needed for my use case. Would have loved the better organ, build and action but in the end the sound variety won out. 

[LarsHarner2]

I am going to connect my Eris 3.5 and potentially Eris 8 sub to it today. I ended up getting Eris 5 BT for use with my DAW/VST's to get lower piano frequencies

[Charleston]

Do we know yet if the CK88 is the exact same keybed/action of the P125?

Is there a difference between GHSA vs GHS?

 

[Sam Mullins]

2 hours ago, Charleston said:

Do we know yet if the CK88 is the exact same keybed/action of the P125?

Is there a difference between GHSA vs GHS?

 

 

I don’t think GHSA is a thing. Google has hits in Sweetwater but I think that’s a typo. Official Yamaha docs say GHS for CK88. 

Having said that many people have noted differences among Yamaha models that all supposedly have GHS action. 

[ap297]

The CK88 keyboard action feels like the Modx88 action. I find the P125 keyboard more pleasurable to play despite both being GHS. The speakers on the P125 are louder and sound "better" to me -vs- CK88. Having said all this I appreciate Yamaha incorporating all the great features into the CK88, very impressive!

[LarsHarner2]

34 minutes ago, ap297 said:

The CK88 keyboard action feels like the Modx88 action. I find the P125 keyboard more pleasurable to play despite both being GHS. The speakers on the P125 are louder and sound "better" to me -vs- CK88. Having said all this I appreciate Yamaha incorporating all the great features into the CK88, very impressive!

I totally agree on the speakers as I have a P125 as well. (Got the CK61).

As I mentioned earlier I added my Eris 3.5 in front of them and they blend well, of course the objective is just to use the internal speakers. 

 

[Tripp323]

Hi - love the more portable stage keyboards and prices.

  the Yamaha CK-61 has many great features at 12 lbs, about same price as a P121 with 73 weighted keys at 25 lbs

will Yamaha offer a WEIGHTED CK-73?

 

For about $300-400 more the Numa x 73 offers their weighted key action, and more functions and upgradability.

Also look at the Yamaha P121 for the lowest cost hammer action 73 key.  

Currently use Kawai MP stage and Nord Electro - but would love an all purpose, light weight, but a good keybed for piano/Rhodes.

Sudiologic SL73 works using iPad - but still not an all in one board.