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Can anyone recommend a good digital travel keyboard for classical professional pianists? It should have 88 keys but be acceptable in air travel (hand)luggage (perhaps assemble from 2 or 3 parts to reduce length) and mimic acoustic piano touch and sound as much as possible. I know this is a tall order but perhaps there are good new models out there?

Thanks!

This thread might help:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1586950/Dummy%20keyboard.html

Even though that thread is 5 years old I still occasionally get contacted about that practice keyboard I used to have. I believe I ended up selling it to a university piano faculty for 4 or 5 hundred dollars.

It was made in Vienna and I have no idea if the builder is still in business. I googled the name on the keyboard, Theodor Opletal, and came up with this site:
http://manufacturing.zibb.com/profile/opletal+theodor/at/wien/wien/1060/25569188

It would be interesting sometime to try and make one. There are so many old pianos getting tossed these days, it seems plausible to utilize an old keyboard and keyframe to make a travel keyboard.

I'm surprised that digital piano manufactures haven't come up with something like this yet. I guess the demand is probably very small.

Thanks for your tips,

I was I guess after something foldable that can make a piano-like sound with headphones and has a really good grand piano imitation action. So I guess from reading thus far the VAX77 could be close, except it's no longer made and is real pricy..

There currently exists no foldable, weighted 88 key controller. My best suggestion would be a Roland A-88 and a laptop.

There's another old thread here somewhere about a guy who paid an electronics shop to "saw off" the ends of a Yamaha P-85 and cut it down to 50 or so keys so the owner could use it as a travel keyboard.

I'm not sure what the right number of keys would be, but if someone could do that with a Casio PX-150 -- maybe trimming it to 64 keys -- that would be about perfect for me.

Sadly, though, nothing on the market now comes closer than the Roland RD-64, which to me misses the mark because it's too heavy, unnecessarily long, and has a sub-optimal action.

I travel with the FS-690, though not by air. It has the great advantage of not being worth stealing from a hotel room. If anything happens to it, I'm only out $50.

Air travel is the real challenge, though. In a car I can take a Casio PX-350, or even a Roland RD-700 or -800. I've even taken the Casio on the train -- it's not easy, but (barely) manageable.

Flying, though, with an 88-key instrument is much, much harder.

Yes, air travel is usually required. So perhaps there is a market for professional pianists for something like that. The Vax77 looked like it would be going in the right direction but the new model will no longer be foldable.

In the case of air travel, does it make more sense to carry a keyboard instrument with you, or find one you can use in the destination city?

Look at what the airlines charge for the extra baggage, add the inconvenience of schlepping it through the airports, and compare that with what you can rent a practice room for where you're going. Check with the hotel and local bars and restaurants, there may be a real piano that you can play.

We occasionally work on the (folding) VAX keyboards. It's quite a bit of engineering but they're not reliable and it's time consuming (expensive) to align the hall sensors to get even response. Also kind of heavy.

Kurt

A good theory, but not a reliable strategy in the practical world of business travel. Sometimes I do get time on an available hotel piano, but you never know for sure that it will be available to you until it is -- or isn't. And on a business trip, one seldom has spare time to hunt for pianos in diverse venues.

Groove Piano are working on a prototype of what you are looking for. Sadly, they've recently had a setback since their electrical engineer died of cancer in January. You could contact them through their Facebook page

Maybe there's a business opportunity here: a piano version of Uber. PW members could offer practice time on their pianos to travelers....

Thanks for all your tips. The Groove people apparently need an electrical engineer to complete their model. Piano rental by private people to traveling musicians is perhaps really a business model. At least here in NYC there is always a shortage of good instruments and spaces where practicing is tolerated.