My quest for my first DP continues....

I have run down a used Roland KR-350e Intelligent piano for sale for within my budget.

A search turned up nothing.... Any opinions on this board for someone learning to play piano?

Thanks!

Edit: There is also a Roland EP-9 for sale locally (used)....

These Roland KR models, pianos that can teach you to play, have always intrigued me. Apparently, they have not been huge sellers. A used one should be an attractive buy. Note that when you buy a used piano, it's a buyer's market. Any piano is difficult to sell, since the number of players in the population is small. There's no warranty and you can get good, new digitals in the ~$500 price range (I use a $600 Williams and it's okay for anything, from jazz to concertos). There's nowhere the seller can unload it fast, since a piano store won't buy it and a pawn shop will give him almost nothing for it. No one lines up to buy used pianos, and the seller is lucky to get any offer. Offer half-price or less for any used digital; the seller should grab for that because it's probably the only offer he'll get.

Both these Roland models must be pretty old since I can't find much information about them online...

Assuming they are fully functional, would they sound good at all?

I bought my first digital in 1989, and even way back then there were digitals with fully-weighted keys that played just like an acoustic piano, so age is no problem with digitals.

I also just found a Yamaha CLP-230 for $650... Ah, the marvels of Craigslist...

Guess I am just wondering if I should jump on any of these before they get away. Or if any of these models were/are known to be not-so-good, etc.

You never need to jump at any piano before it gets away, because pianos are not the type of product that flies off the shelf, the number of players in the general population being very small. And even if a piano sells before you can get it, so what? There are plenty more where it came from. I personally see little difference between the various makes and models. They all sound more or less the same. It's the player that needs to coax good music out of the instrument.

I'd take this with a grain of salt.

That depends on your idea of 'sounding good': it's only in the last few years that DPs have had more than two or three velocity layers. The actions have improved tremendously too.

You may have seen this youtube video if you googled it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm5RcaNx5jM

I found the sound very fatiguing, and I don't know if you'd want to play it for long periods of time. It seems to date from the late 1990s.

It really all depends on your budget. There are plenty of good keyboards in the $500 range.

Good luck,

Jonathan