coffeenote Posted January 1, 2006 Share Posted January 1, 2006 Hi all, appreciate any help you might offer. Just joined up with some friends, reheasing classic rock weekly. Also have some love for playing basic jazz standards. Messing with an old cheap Casio and now looking to spend maybe $1000 to $1500 on a new keyboard. Went to Sam Ash and what i liked best was the Yamaha P-140...sound was great, felt to me like a piano, plus looked pretty simple to operate. Even in my price range. My concerns are - would like to have more sounds -- synth and maybe some bass, perhaps others - seems a bit heavy (have to drag it to reheasal once/week, not gigging...yet) Seems odd to me that the choices that were closest to pianos had limited sounds but you could be a xmas special chock full of 875 (admittedly cheesey) sounds for $99! And the good ones had such poor touch and/or piano sound. Maybe there's a way to expand the Yamaha's sound options using midi? Or I'm sure there are other options as well, there seems to be a few postings about the Kawai MP4 and some Rolands that I didn't see at Sam Ash. Would appreciate any thoughts you folks might have. Thanks all and happy new year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Fortner Posted January 1, 2006 Share Posted January 1, 2006 Yep, that's a common trade-off, especially in this price range. For classic rock, you presumably want organs, clavs, Rhodes, and the occasional synth in addition to piano. You could put a MIDI sound module on the P140, but now you have two things to set up. If you like the Yamaha piano sound, want 88 weighted keys, and a variety of other high-quality patches, I'd try to find an S90 that hasn't been sold (it's been replaced by the S90ES, whose street price hovers around the $2K mark. You could also look at the brand-new MO8 (a scaled-down Motif), but it has a lot of sequencing and workstation features you may or may not use. Stephen Fortner Principal, Fortner Media Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeenote Posted January 6, 2006 Author Share Posted January 6, 2006 Stephen, Just wanted to thank you for taking the time to answer. This past Monday my son and I ventured into NYC and played I don't know how many keyboards more or less side by side. I did in fact find an S 90 at a good price and couldn't be happier...about the only thing I sacrificed versus what I wanted was weight, but that's why I have sons! Thought also you might like to know they really took care of me at Guitar Center on 14th st in NYC, the owner or manager is I believe a son or nephew of the original Manny, I think he must have left there sometime after Sam Ash acquired them...he knows his stuff and gave me a very good deal too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Fortner Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 There's really no substitute for being able to do what you did. Time well spent. I'm so glad you found the keyboard you wanted at the right price... it's a great feeling. I hope you stick around the forum, too! Happy rehearsing and gigging! Stephen Fortner Principal, Fortner Media Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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