Puff The Magic Wagon!

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Wifey wants an electric keyboard so that she can take up the piano again & hopefully teach Ez...

Wifey was looking at Yamaha P60 as a guide, but went to shop where assistant told her that the music quality wasn't good enough & she should spend another £500 for something else

Anyone have experience of this sort of thing? Offer me any advice? Any place where I can get these cheaper than the shops (please!).

ProperCharlie

I bought a Korg SP500 recently. I am very pleased with it, and can now play 2 top choons: Phil Collins *one more night* and *Bye Bye Love* made famous by Simon and Garfunkel. There is practically no end to my talent . Seriously, I went to Turnkey in Tottenham Court Road and messed around with a range of pianos/keyboards. I took along a mate who is a proper piano player and we both liked the Korg, although it has no speakers so you need eitehr a decent stereo to play it through, or some amplified cabinets like Roland make. Check out www.turnkey.co.uk

unclebuck

Be aware that Turnkey have a really bad reputation among musicians though (customer service, faulty goods and other stuff)

Digital Village are supposed to be much better. But we are talking about the pro end of the market.

UB

ProperCharlie

UB - the customer service is absolutely sh1te. When I was in there we asked if a particular keyboard could be plugged in as we wanted to play it. Guy looks up and goes "I'm busy just now". That was it. We had waited about 10 minutes to speak to him and then he just gives us that. My mate was furious and said "well when might you not be so busy?" He just says "I'll be a while" and turns away.

OTOH they have a great range of stuff in there, the prices are competitive and their delivery service is ok. Once I knew which model I wanted I left the shop and bought it over the phone the next day. Delivered 2 days later with all the right bits and bobs.

Makalu

Yamaha keyboards are fine - only criticism could be some of there sounds are a little metallic to the trained ear.

Safe bet all round is to buy Roland - pricey but very good. Im sure they will have a keyboard to match your budget.

There are loads of places to shop for this stuff - for quality service, buy from a smaller shop where the owner gets to eat if you buy from him! Turnkey (aka soho soundhouse) are a bit of a box shifter and rely on volume selling.

Try before you buy.
Haggle on price.
Be aware of the product range so you dont buy old models and have trouble selling on in the future.

Mak.

12LEE

Check out Thomann for good pricing. Only £12 delivery from Germany!

For SQ I swear by Kurzweil and adore my PC2X (previously had Yamaha P100). Worthwhile checking out a Kurz SP88.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

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Crikey

All over my head with Kurgs & Kurweills

Might have to make it KISS unless strong recomendations for something.

Have found out that wifey was "introduced" to Rolands & has a short list of

F90/F100

HP2e/HP3e

Any knowledge of these devices? In the case of the F90/F100, the obvious difference is in pedals (has 1 lose one against 2 fixed) + a few more toons.

With theHP2e/3e its about a recording device or summat.

Given those choices, can anyone suggest a direct competitor for them or an option that might be better? Budget is seemingly £1K - £1.5K ( ) so given what it appears she wants...

I know completely FA about these things & am only interested because you can stick headphones on The other problem is that we're moving house hopefully soon & might not have any space for one but thats not a consideration here

Thanks for the replies so far

12LEE

If you're ever in the Maidenhead area, pop into Music Land in Taplow (01628 661155) and ask for Greg. He will be able to take your wife through various Yamaha, Technics and possibly Roland options. Nice guy, speaks English on this subject matter.

Best thing is for her to sit at lots of different instruments and see which she likes the sound of and action of. Key thing to consider in your application is built-in speakers or not.

fast bloke

I got Emma a Casio CTK 560L. Costs about £80.00. Sound is OK, and has a built in 3 step key lighting learning process. Both kids (age 4 and 2) can now pick out a few tunes without the lights.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

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fb

If that were an option...

ProperCharlie

Puff,

I space is a consideration then you might be better off going down the "stage piano" route - ie no built in cabinet. You can get a good collapsable stand for £40, and that way the whole thing can be packed away when not in use. They all have headphone sockets but the likes of the SP500 have no speakers so if your missus wants to share her talents with the nieghbours she will need something to plug it into. If she's mad for a roland the FP3 looked quite nice; a snip at £970

Puff The Magic Wagon!

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PC

I guess you mean the HP3? I've only seen/found it at 1099

Logic doesn't always come into it

ProperCharlie

Puff:

FP3

logic is obviously very low down on the list of decision making factors!