Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Yamaha CP50, Roland FP-4F, or used Nord Piano?

I'm looking for a DP to learn on for non-classical music. Home use only, no gigging. I can get these three DPs locally for $1600, which is pretty much the top of my budget. (I already have good monitors.) I'd love to spend more if I could but I can't, and this would be my only DP for a couple of years.

Are there any important differences I should know about these models? I'm a newbie to pianos and am self-taught with synths, but I'm hoping to get a decent enough DP to start taking lessons this summer and get decent technique (and unlearn my own bad technique).

EDIT: The Nord is the original version, which I can get with a 30-day return. The other DPs can be bought new with warranty.

All three boards you list are pretty good - it really comes down to personal preference, so you need to play-test them for a while first.

I would recommend the RD-300NX over the FP-4F though, especially if you already have a pair of monitors.

Cheers,
James
x

There are many feature differences among them, but assuming you don't care about anything except piano sounds, it's personal taste as to which sounds and feels best. I would take the Nord. My second choice would be the Yamaha, but its action is too heavy feeling for my taste, and the interface is the least clear of the three. I'm not a fan of the Roland FP-4F unless you really have to keep the weight down... for a few hundred more, the action of the 7F is much better, but I understand you're already at the edge of your budget.

Another factor... if you want to trade up in a few years, I think you'd take the smallest loss on the Nord, since you're already buying it at a depreciated used price.

Good points all around. Thanks!

I wish I could walk into a store, sit down and be able to make value judgments on feel but I don't have a piano frame of reference for play-testing since I'm used to bouncy synth keys and VSTs. So I'm flying a bit blind here...

FYI I put the Roland FP-4F on the list because I'm a fan of classically-trained Vika Yermolyeva's (hundreds of) piano interpretations of rock songs on Youtube I liked the sound from her RD700NX. But that DP is too much money (and probably too much piano) for me right now.