Kawai 506N piano

Sharp10r

My wife is looking at a used piano with several years remaining on warranty. We've not met the seller yet, but we want to know- what do you think about this piano (if you've musical experience and experience with the piano) as compared to others in its price range?

Rothgarr

I haven't played that one, but we were recently looking for an upright for my son who is taking lessons right now. I can't remember which ones, exactly, I played but we actually wound up picking up a digital piano instead.

We picked up a *gasp* Casio Privia PX-330.

This video is for the cheaper 130 but they sound exactly the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E90JGRaFkY

Another video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSGEcOy2GP8

We went with a digital piano because of the flexibility. For example, when I'm practicing lessons with my son, you can split the keyboard anywhere so that we both get a Middle C. Plus with all the sounds it lets my son have some fun. And lastly, I like being able to plug it into a computer -- I use it as a controller for Reason and Digital Performer. Not to mention they are much cheaper (both the purchase and not having to get it tuned). If I had to pick one drawback with this particular model it's that it's not the most intuitive piece of hardware if you want to do more than play the sounds.

No digital piano will sound or feel exactly like a real piano, but they're very close (depending on which digital piano you get). If you're at all interested I would definitely suggest trying one out in person.

But if you want something that's a piece of furniture in your home, a digital piano can't provide that.

Sharp10r

Thanks. My wife is a piano teacher, we want a piano so her students learn the proper touch. Right now she teaches on my Korg Triton ProX. As for digitals, we've researched them for another purpose and she loves the Yamaha YGP-635 because even though others have weighted keys, they still use springs so the keys sort of jump back up. This Yamaha while digital uses hammer action heavier at the bottom and lighter at the top which best mimics pianos.

Khavall

How good is the person who will be using the piano? Uprights are lacking in many ways that will probably never be fixed. Of course, digital pianos are also lacking in a few ways that will probably never be fixed, but yeah, given a choice between a quality digital and an upright I would got with the quality digital. You can even get some that look pretty nice.

The biggest problem with upright pianos is that grands have a piece in their action called the "repetition", which basically allows for much faster response from the keys. It's normally not too much of a problem, but if you're playing something with a fast repetitive motion, you'll definitely notice.

And really, almost everything else about uprights also comes from the action being sucky by nature of being crammed sideways into this tiny box. Personally when I play uprights they always feel dead, even without dealing with the sound, and any sort of subtle response from them is nearly impossible.

The other big thing is that the una corda pedal("soft pedal") doesn't work right on uprights. On Grands, it shifts the action over so that 1-2 strings are being hit instead of 2-3. This means you get a nice thinner, more muffled, less vibrant sound, in addition to just being softer. On an upright, normally the action is just moved closer to the strings, so that they don't strike as hard. So you're quieter, but there's no change in sound at all.

But on the other hand, if you're not at a point where you're dealing with the tone or feel of a piano, then it probably matters less. If you were ever to get serious about playing piano, I'd look away from uprights, because they're just super limited.

Now, I actually prefer digital pianos to uprights playing-wise too, assuming you're talking about a weighted, full-sized digital with good response. Digital pianos biggest weakness is sound, and there's no fixing that, but what they have that is awesome is that they can have really nice feel to them, since the action is not at all about making x or y sound, and all about making it feel right. If you want a piano to sound like a piano and have good audible response to playing, then you'll have to steer away from digital.

so basically, as a general rule, if you're looking for a piano that sounds like a piano(though not a great one), go upright, and if you're looking for a piano that feels like a piano(though a little off), go digital. And if you want both, then I hope you have a pretty large amount of room and enough money to afford a grand.

Now, for the brand... I'm a fan of Kawais. They're very obviously not the super-high-end level of piano, but they're pretty solid. In fact, one of my favorite pianos I've ever played on was a Kawai grand... though most of them aren't as responsive as that one was. I'm not familiar with the specific one, but Kawais as a general brand I've had relatively good experiences with. They tend to be very bright, which can be a little much sometimes, but overall is nice, and while their action suffers in the extreme quiets for some reason, they have a pretty full sound when played normally. The biggest complaint I have about their uprights that I've played is that the sound and the feel can seem a bit disconnected, because you're still getting that dead upright feel and it sounds waaaay more alive than it's playing... and not always in a good way.

Sharp10r

My wife is very good. We're both music majors though I never progressed beyond 2 semesters of keyboard- she is an excellent pianist. It's mainly for her piano studio and we're limited to uprights because of the size of our home (and our budget).