I want to start learning to play piano, so I thought the guide light function on the CVPs are quite cool. I saw a used CVP-305 (5 year old) for $3000 and a CVP-307 (5 year old) for $3500. Which one should I buy? Are these piece reasonable? What is a fair price for CVP 305/307/309 that are 4-5 year old? Thanks!

$3,000 is an expensive first piano for someone who can't play yet. There are plenty of very nice brand new pianos that are just as good for your purpose 1/2 that price and a few that could work for 1/5th.

The CVP series tends to be expensive for what you get because it comes with all those non-piano features. If you need then great. But if not you're paying mostly for what you don't need.

Do NOT think that yo will buy the best piano now so that it will last along time. That is not how digital pianos work. You tend to upgrade as technology and you needs progress.

What about other brands. If you can afford a $3K used piano look at what Roland and Kaawai have in their line of new pianos. Buy based on the feel of the key action first, then based on sound. Only buy the Yamaha after you can describe to yourself how it's sound and touch differs from others and why you prefer it. I did end up with a new Yamaha piano after that but my budget as at most 1/2 yours. With your budget the feild is wide open, no need to hunt down something used.

Thank you ChrisA.

I am hesitant to buy a used one but I thought the guide light function on the CVP are cool. Don't know if it is really that helpful (is it?) This is the ONLY reason I am looking at used CVP rather than a new CLP e.g., CLP-340. Don't need the other bells and wristles on CVP at all. What would you recommend? GH3 or equivalent is important to me.

ChrisA is right. Don't get a CVP. The "coolness" factor will wear off in 2 weeks. If you're serious about practicing and developing your piano skills, just get a basic one. All the bells and whistles (including the guide light function) will be a major distraction. I'd agree on getting one with the GH3 keyboard. CLP-340 and up or CLP-270 and up are all great pianos. You can't go wrong with them. I'm not familiar with Roland or Kawai so I can't say much about them but I tried out a Roland once and I didn't like the action much.

If you're dead set on getting a CVP though, I saw a used CVP-307 listing on Craiglist for $3200 about 8 months ago so they would be a lot cheaper now, considering it's 2 generations old now. Yamaha has come out with the CVP-5xx series for a while.

In the Yamaha line I'd say "GH or better" keys. The GH3 adds a sensor to control the damper to allow a note to be repeated without damping. This simulates a featur most grand piano have but most upright acoustic piano lack. Nothing a new piano player would notice. But the GH and GH3 have same key feel s GH3 does no harm and might be better for advanced level player, maybe you will be at that level a few years from now.

Yo can buy a YDP160 that has everything you need for $1,350 but I just noticed a 15% off deal at Guitar Center. This gets you GH keys, three layer samples and pedals for about $1K. A much better value than the $3K used CVP. You can sell a YDP for 1/2 what you paid for it in three years

You also pay a large premium for the CLP line over the YDP line because the low volume CLP deaers work of rather large mark-ups where as the mass market and on-line retails live on about a 20% margin. Half of what you pay for a CLP or CVP is dealer profit.

if you can afford $3000 range DPs, then look at Yamaha CLP340, which has better action (GH3), sound and functionality than any lower range YDP140/160. skip CVPs unless you want to use its accompaniments or play in a band or something. CLP340 will last long enough without needing upgrade any time soon for you to learn to play on.

I don't know about lights on the keyboard, but when I started piano I labelled the keys with the notes. This was a mistake and inhibited my learning. I recognised this quite early and the labels were gone within a couple of weeks.

You end up looking for the key-label instead of learning your way around. At least that's what I found. YMMV

I have a CVP model. The guide light function is very useful for walking you through new pieces of music if your sight reading is slow and you are stumbling to find the right note. Also very useful on a CVP is the possibility to practice just the left or right hand as the machine will recognise where you are and play the other hand for you. You pause, it will pause. Once you get past the beginning stages of a new piece of music you can then turn it off.

The guide light function requires you to provide it with a midi file of the piece you want to practice. This is important. It has some built in, but the 50 standard classical pieces also provided are in the required midi format. I use music recognition scanning software to convert new sheet music to midi format and to separate out the left and right hands for use with the guide lights.

More useful than "cool". Give me a another year or two and the guide light usefulness may start wearing off a little, provided my sight reading improves beyond grade 3. But still, the ability for it to play the other hand will always come in...handy.

I'll second both points. The CVP line will only benefit you if you need the accompaniment features. If not, the 340 is a very fine unit. You'll love the keyboard action, even as a beginner.

Thanks to everyone for talking me out of buying the used CVP! I will check out the YDP160 this weekend and also try to get the best price on the CLP-340 from the dealer. The price listed is $2799 + tax and includes free delivery. Thanks again!

If you can afford the $3000 price range look at getting a Kawai CA-63. RM3 puts the GH3 action to shame IMHO. However, if you simply must get the CLP-340 try to haggle ALOT off the $2799 as this would be a silly amount to pay for the 340, although a fine instrument(sound and action), even the most Yamaha biased members on this site will tell you the 340 has been around too long to pay that price. That's just the nature of the DP market. Good Luck with your search!!!