Looking perhaps to a light alternative option to my Roland 700 that I can take to various places. The Yamaha np-v80 Piaggero seems to have promise. Anyone touched it?

Sprout

I touched it a couple of times at stores Piaggero allegedly means light piano in Italian and the emphasis is definitely on light rather than on piano. The graded soft touch feels like a synth to me. It can run on batteries, but the small built-in speakers will only fill a small room, IMHO. The cheaper Piagerro series has less features than the more expensive RD-700 series, but depending on what you want to do with it, it may serve the purpose. The manual is downloadable from the Yamaha site.

IMO... nice features, decent feel for what it is, great light weight, some nice sounds. Piano sound itself is pretty weak. No MIDI except over USB. No drawbar organ like the VR-700 of course. If you only need piano, I think the NP-30/NP-31 is stronger. if you're looking for a wide range of sounds, the new Casio XW-P1 looks really nice, though only 61 keys, and probably a pretty lackluster piano sound as well... but tons of features, and drawbar organ functionality. In lightweight gear, the Yamaha MOX6 has a pretty nice piano sound.

Yes we have one of these at home, it's a toy for my 6yo daughter. As a serious gigging board ...stay away.

Perhaps I should have clarified. I want a "practice piano". Because my Roland 700 GX is such a bear to move, we always have practice at my place. I think the band would like to not always have to practice at my house (I also play mandolin and uke which are much easier to move). It would also be nice to have a piano to play around the campfire or just jamming around in living rooms. Not for serious gigging--just something that would be sufficient for me to play in a pinch instead of lugging the beast around. For actual gigs I would use the Roland.

I did touch the bottom line of the Piaggero pianos, and I was actually rather impressed with the sound of the thing. Not brilliant, but plenty sufficient. I imagine that they use the same base samples.

I sat in with a band that had a light action keyboard and I never felt comfortable with it. I must have played more than 15 minutes and I never got to the point where I could play it well.

I'd invest in a solid flight case and a solid hand truck before I would waste my money on a keyboard that had an action I didn't enjoy playing. Have your band help you with the moving of your equipment.

Ah! When you said Roland 700, it was the VR-700 that popped into mind, which is why I mentioned organ as well as piano. Seeing it's RD700-GX, that changes the perspective a little! As does seeing that its use sounds more minimal So is piano pretty much the only sound you need?


Which model did you try? "Bottom" is not clear. For piano, the NP-V80 sounds better than the NP-V60, but not as good as the NP-11/NP-30/NP-31 (which I believe all sound the same).

Nord Piano ?
It's lightweight and portable.

...or a Nord Electro 3 HP.

It's good for playing around at home. The sound is minimal- definitely not professional quality.

What about for i think the same price a Casio CDP120? $299 at guitar center.
I tried it and it wasn't bad- I am looking for something to serve the same purpose as you

Those Nords are really expensive. I'm thinking something in the $200-$300 range. I already spent a bunch of money on my Roland 700GX. That's my main piano. When I'm at home to practice, I'll use my Roland. If someone wants to play somewhere else, I would like to have a lighter option. Fairly cheapo, but not quite a "toy".

Sprout

For $700 odd you could get a Casio PX-3 but for $2-300 your going to be looking at 2nd hand stuff ....whatever that might be.

The NP-31 I mentioned is under $300 new. As I said, while the NP-V80 has some advantages, I think the NP-31 is better if you're just using it for piano. (To be more accurate, that's based on having played the V80 and the NP-30, but my understanding is that the NP-31 has the same piano sound as the NP-30.)

If the OP does not require something quite that light, or battery operation, you may not need to get to far out of budget to get 88 weighted keys, sometimes there are sales on the Casio CDP-100/CDP-120 or Korg SP-170.

Spending most of my time at my 50 YO Kohler & Campbell console these days--even sold my SP 170 because it was gathering dust. Bought an NP-11 for night use with headphones. The NP31/NP11 have a nice feel for a keybed that is "unweighted", much more playable than similar offerings from others, in my opinion. I think the same 10-voice sample sets are used in these as in the P85/P95 instruments. The tone "color" changes with velocity, as in a acoustic piano with good hammers. A disappointment with the SP-170 was that only loudness changed with different velocities. Go for the NP 31.

The P85 and P95 do not have the same 10 sounds as each other, two are different.

If the NP31 has the identical piano sound as the NP30, it is very similar to the P95, but not quite identical. If nothing else, there is different note stretching going on at the bottom of the board. (Possibly related to the fact that the NP30 has only 76 keys.)


When I tried an SP-170, I felt it did have at least one velocity switch, that occurred at a relatively quiet level... in fact, it was one of the things I did not like about it, because if I was playing a quiet piece with a bunch of notes right around that velocity break, I'd hear very noticeable changes in the sound among the notes where my finger pressure had hardly changed at all! I have a recorded sample of that I'll get around to posting one of these days...

Good observations, anotherscott. Be nice to hear what Sprout decided.