My daughter is going to be going with her high school orchestra to Italy next month and will be taking a Roland keyboard to play the piano parts. We are concerned whether the adapters that tourist usually take to plug in shavers and hair dyers will work with this keyboard. Anyone had any experience with playing in Europe with a keyboard from the USA? BTW, they are playing in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan. Unfortunately, none of the places they are performing have an accoustic piano.

The voltage in Europe is 220 V, while the US is 110 V. Check to see if the keyboard has universal power supply (like notebook computers). If it does, both input voltages should be stated at the socket for electricity on the keyboard itself, or if it comes with a AC/DC transformer, then on the transformer. If you cannot find any of these, you need to buy a transformer that would step-down 220V to 110V, i.e. it should state 220V input with 110V output. You should also take note of the maximum current/wattage accepted by the transformer and make sure that the keyboard would not exceed either. You will also need an adaptor to connect any flat two-pin US plugs to the wall socket. European sockets accept round two pins.

I live in a country that has 220V with British-style 3-pin plugs. I was able to use a US-bought keyboard (110V input) without any problems by using the step-down transformer.

Roxane,
Thanks for the information.