Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
A viable alternative for those who have no choice |
| Disadvantages: |
Not a real Piano |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
This electric piano was bought out of necessity rather than desire. I'm a student in London, and thus do not have the money or space in my digs to buy a real piano. I really did need something to practise on, as it helps me relax, and I am aiming to take my grade 8 piano after a hiatus of many years.
So, off to Chappells of Bond St it was. I know that they only deal with Yamaha, but I had decided to go with the make, as they have a reputation for being reliable solid and good value - even though they are not my favourite brand of acoustic piano.
One of the worst features of the product is its looks - they are dire. Mine is black, with the top panel a very fake Mahogany, while its sister, the p120s is silver and pine (uurgh!) - otherwise they are identical. The build quality is somewhat better, using a large amount of metal, while keeping the large unit's weight to 22Kg. Using a full size
keyboard, while necessary, does pose limitations.
This solution was the cheapest and most portable to incorporate a graded hammer keyboard (low notes heavier than the higher ones), built in monitor speakers and a foot pedal that allows for half-pedalling.
The keyboard (GH2) is excellent for its price, and is a standard component for all expensive
Yamaha keyboards, including all but the most expensive Clavinova. It has a good resistance, is sensitive and while not as good as the real thing, is very playable.
Sound wise, it is a mixed bag. The sounds produced are very lifelike, expecially the grand piano 1 and the beautiful harpsichord. Though the quality is not up to my standards - it seems a bit fuzzy and I can sometimes clearly hear metallic overtones. I was so miffed by this that I almost returned the unit, but I discovered that all the display units had the same sound. But I must stress that the sounds are very lifelike, just not that good quality in a hi-fi sense.
Apart from these two points, the keyboard is fairly simple, with just ~20 voices, ablility to record, use split voice, metronome, and with about 50 very well reproduced piano pieces as demos. Controls for brightness, touch sensitivity and reverb to simulate different settings adds to playability. IO includes midi in/out, headphones x2, phono, sustain pedal (pedal included), aux and serial.
Yamaha electric pianos have come a long way in a very short amount of time, becoming not a replacement for acoustic pianos, but a good enough imitation for those who can not use the real thing. Also note that at about £900, the price is at most half of the cheapest pianos available. Add to that the benefits of the electronics, and you have a very useful package.
