My daughters (9 and 11), have been taking piano lessons for the last two years. We finally moved up from a 61 key Yamaha EZ150 keyboard to a new DP 88 weighted key (took me this long due to budget constraints). After reading several of the threads on these forums, I knew that the P85 was a top choice. Went ot GC on 12/28, and they honored a 20% coupon that Music123 was advertising. And the best part is that my kids are thrilled at this new DP.

Any ways, My questions are:
1) Do my kids really need to practice with the three pedal or the one pedal that came in the box is good enough?
2) What stand shall I get. In another thread I saw the Quick lok W550. Are there other choices that would look nice also?

You daughters will know if any of the music they are working on uses a pedal other than just the one damper pedal. Ask them. But I suspect the one pedal will be fine.

Yamaha makes a nice custom stand for the P85 that matches the color and holds the keys the exact distance from the floor.

It seems expensive for what you get, three broads and some screws but it works well and looks good. I bought one like this for my p155.

The "pedal" that comes in the box is more like a foot switch, it looks nothing like a real piano pedal and may slide around on the floor.

So I'd advise to get either the Yamaha FC3 pedal or the complete wooden stand with the three-pedal unit. The latter looks pretty nice and the sound from the speakers benefits from the wooden stand.

check here to see P85's 3-pedal unit (LP5) which is what you want:

http://www.andysmusiconline.com/products/yamaha-p85l85lp5.html
or
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/search.p...CFQOdnAodTH9RJw

it's available at most online stores that sell P85.

My P155 came with the FC4 pedal. It looked OK. I figured all Yamaha DPs came with the same pedal. Guess not. Didn't matter for me as I already had an m-audio SP2 which has better build quality.

Mine came with this little black box. I threw it away after upgrading to the SP2, but it looked something like this:



Now I'm using the full 3-pedal unit. Looks a little gray and ugly but at least the springs don't squeak as on the FC3.

I have that exact pedal on my Roland EXR-5s!