I am considering buying a digital piano for our church. We already have a Steinway in the sanctuary, so this would largely be used by the "band" in our contemporary worship service and for other events in the fellowship hall. Here are some requirements:

1. Excellent piano sound and touch.
2. "Stage piano" design, so that it is somewhat portable.
3. Onboard speakers and amplification so that it can be used "standalone" when necessary.
4. Sturdy, solid build.
5. Relative ease of use. A "regular person" (think the little old lady who plays hymns) should be able to power it up and play it without knowing all of the bells and whistles.

Money is not no object. Our max budget for the piano and accessories is in the $2500 to $2700 range.

I'm not going to tell you what my current thinking is because I want to see what ideas people come up with.

Thanks in advance.

The little ole lady would be happy with a Clavinova type instrument; preferably without too many other voices. Two fellas would easily shift it without dismantling; Some of the upper range models have high on board amplification, too.

I don`t think Jesus would mind what you bought . . .but who knows, He may have something in mind . . . (I`m not being flippant, by the way!)

There are several great stage pianos around. Try the Roland FP7F and Kawai ES7. Also if you want to go cheap there's the Yamaha P155, though I can't vouch for its onboard speakers. The Yamaha CP300 is older and heavier but it has great speakers for a piano of that type.

Console models have better speakers and there are more of them, though they tend to cost a little more. Still, most of them are pretty easy to move. On the other hand, you can toss the P155 or equivalent on your shoulder and take a walk with it. That's pretty portable.

Actually the Kawai EP3 has speakers also, I think.

I'm heavily leaning towards a PX-350 (in conjunction with a Motif ES7)for our own praise team. It's so light that I'd be able to easily carry it into one of the side rooms for vocal rehearsals.

But that's all it's internal amplification is good for - rehearsals. If your little old lady playing hymns is going to be using it stand alone for services you'd better look elsewhere.

i would steer away from casio - they are a lot better than before but I would think Yamaha would be a more safer bet.

If it wasn't for the requirement of it having onboard speakers, I'd suggest the Roland RD-700NX. It feels so much like an acoustic and the sounds is excellent. It's what I just bought for (me to lug from home to) our church. : )

"2. "Stage piano" design, so that it is somewhat portable.", that could limit the size/power of the on board speakers. I once went to a recital in a large Cathedral the DP used was a Yamaha CLP-240, it performed magnificently using only it's on board speakers, so much so that a crowd of the audience went down to take a look at the piano after the performance, because everyone was really impressed.

bluebilly, I expect the audience were also very impressed by the pianist.

James
x

With onboard speakers, and as stage pianos, the present choices are basically what gvfarns said: Yamaha p155, cp300, Kawai es7, Roland fp7f. Choose your poison. In terms of durability, as well as in terms of good speakers, I'd expect the CP300 to be the most solid one (but I might be wrong). In terms of sound, they are very different, so you should make a choice yourself.

I had a thought (always dangerous!):

. . . Why not buy two keyboards? One for "piano" with weighted keyboard,
. . . one for "organ" ?

The Casio WK-7500 has 50 pre-set "drawbar organ" voices, and costs about $500. [It can also sound like anything else you'd want to simulate.] It's _not_ a good piano substitute -- spring-loaded keyboard.

Several choices in the "digi-piano" market -- Casio PX-150/PX-350, Yamaha P155, etc -- would be reasonable purchases.

I think you'd be within budget, buying the pair.

. Charles

My brother uses a Yamaha P-70 for his church, and they've been pretty happy with it. Wouldn't a Yamaha P-105 work too -- why only P-155 above?

Two fellas would easily shift it without dismantling

In the main sanctuary of my church we have a Yamaha CP-300. The service I play for is in a different building, so I do not regularly play this keyboard, but I've played on it a few times and it felt and sounded wonderful to me, and was easy to use.

On more difficult songs, we have our choir director play the piano for us. She is a classical piano teacher, and professor at a local Christian university, and I have yet to hear her complain or mention any negatives about playing the CP-300. And for what it's worth, every time she does play it sounds wonderful to my ears, and it does not seem like she has any trouble operating the keyboard at all.

I tried out both the P105 and the P155. I preferred the keyboard of the P155 -- it was an "Ahhh - like a real piano!" moment. I wouldn't have bought the P105. The P155 is easily within the OP's budget.

Somebody else might have a different reaction. The P155 is getting old; maybe wait till NAMM, and buy its replacement.

. Charles

PS -- I see that "organ sounds" is not in the OP's requirement. I withdraw my "synth + digipiano" suggestion.

I don't want to cut off discussion, but I did some looking (and playing) around and decided that on balance the Roland FP-7F is the route to go. I was extremely impressed with the piano sound and the keyboard action, and the young fellow who plays in the "praise band" highly recommended it.

The onboard amplification is admittedly a little weak, but it will generally be connected to the PA system. I am probably going to supplement the gift with a slightly used Roland KC-350 amp, which will put out plenty of sound. It could be used for things like the sunrise Easter service, which is held on the front steps of the church. The preachers' microphone could be plugged directly into the amp, alleviating the need for an additional PA system.

At our church, I setup a Kawai MP6 (stage piano) with a QSC K12 (power amplified) speaker. We only use the MP6 pipe organ sounds, but the MP6 has acceptable piano sounds if needed.

The sound of this system is excellent and a great improvement over the 1970s living-room electric organs that we had before.

This arrangement doesn't have internal speakers, but a small external speaker setup could be added at low cost.

In addition, the Kawai MP6 can be used as a MIDI controller, so more sophisticated sampled pianos and organs can be played using a Mac or PC.

I believe the MP6 with the QSC K12 speaker would fit within your budget.

Thanks. We have a large pipe organ and a Steinway B in our main sanctuary (it's a very big church, both physically and in membership). This will primarily be used as a "gig" instrument for the "praise band" that plays for our contemporary worship service that meets in the fellowship hall, a converted gym.

It depends on your style of worship, but at our church we have a Baldwin grand for the lead and a Roland (SX I believe) for synth pad accompaniment. The Roland feels nice to me, great keyboard space and key weight is perfect. Its piano sounds don't thrill me though.

True James, however he was a typical conservatoire student, performance great, content boring.