Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Buy in September or wait for NAMM

Hi folks,

Just joined and have a quick question -- I am planning on purchasing a keyboard around September…does it pay to push this off until January when new models are announced at NAMM? I'm in the $700-$1200 USD price range and have a shortlist of required features (i.e., 88 weighted keys, built in sounds, midi, pitch bend/mod) and have a decent idea of at least some of the keyboards I want to try (Casio PX350/5s, Yamaha P155, and others).

A few more details of my situation follow:

As a child, I had fourteen years of classical piano (about five of which I took semi-seriously). I also played keyboards in a few rock bands and had a multimoog and some Roland model that I can’t remember. When I went to college, I stopped playing completely and decided to start again two weeks ago – about 28 years later. I opted to take jazz/blues piano lessons this time, found a great instructor and have quite a bit of catching up to do -- way beyond knocking some rust off.

I have a good upright Yamaha but when my youngest goes to bed I am relegated to practicing on the, quite painful, Casio WK-1800 my dad purchased for the grandkids. I decided that if I stick with this through the summer, I will treat myself to an 88-key keyboard. My daughter has started voice and is interested in recording so I would love for the keyboard to function as a decent midi controller as well.

Thanks in advance,
--JT

I'm also wondering if I should hold off but I only have a keyboard to use right now.

There's a summer Namm show next month which is what I'm mainly waiting for. Next January for the winter Namm would be too long for me to wait. if there are new announcements at the summer show they'd be out by around September I guess. Is there a trend for the winter show to be bigger and for the big announcements to be made there or are they equal?

Looking at the wikipedia entry, it seems the summer NAMM is only about 25% the size of the larger winter NAMM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMM_Show

Bear in mind that even if the pianos you would like to come out do at NAMM it will be a while before they are actually available for sale. In some cases it can be quite a while. That's practically a year from now.

In digital pianos, as in all tech, waiting results in a better price and quality item. But it also means a year without the use of the product. Personally I don't expect a ground-breaking new piano in that range any time soon, and if there are new models they won't be very different from existing models (particularly in Yamaha...they have changed almost nothing in their medium/low end DP lineup for many years). And the Casio you mention is pretty new so it won't be replaced any time soon, I think.

Of course, you need to decide for yourself how impatient you are and how likely you think it is that good stuff will come out. My personal view is that the next few months (up to and including September) is a fine time to buy and feel relatively little buyer's remorse.

If you don't have a regular dealer, shop the holiday sales at the big online dealers. Most offer 15% off their regular discounted prices and free shipping.

Thanks...I didn't consider the delay from announcement to sales...waiting past January would be pushing it too far out for me. My idea was that given the feature set and price point of the new Casio's, there might be a manufacturer or two feeling the need to respond this NAMM which would put downward pressure on pricing.

I didn't even think about the holiday sales...in the US do they run the same time as most consumer appliance holiday sales (e.g., the next two would be Independence Day and Labor Day?

--JT

Yes the summer NAMM does appear to be far less significant. Looking back to last year though the Kawai CA95 which was a big upgrade to the CA93 was announced at the summer event. Kawai VPC1 and Casio PX-5S I think were announced at this years winter event. Maybe there were more too.

Don't know if it's worth waiting a month for me. I'd really like to see a successor to the MP10 with the VPC1's action more sounds on it with Harmonic Imaging XL, a bit slimmer and lighter and compatibility with the triple pedal. I may resort to getting something cheap with a decent hammer action to get started (like Yamaha P-35) and then sell it on when this or maybe an RD700NX successor come out. I could just get the VPC1 now but quite risky having never used VST's before.

Completely forgot about Father's Day sales...15% off at musiciansfriend.com as we speak.

That PX-5S does look nice. Given my layoff, it is going to take awhile for me to wipe my 30 year old brand perception of Casio based on this:
I also still think of LG as Lucky Goldstar as well

Hahaha. I remember the VL-Tone and had a similar perception about Casio too.

Until I tried the x50 series ... I bought a Casio Celviano AP-450 a month ago.