LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Yamaha P-60?

ziggysane -- 01/12/2005, 20:49:24 -- #10321

Does anyone have any thoughts on this keyboard?  I'm thinking about purchasing one to use as my first serious gigging keyboard (crappy casios being the previous occupants of that position).  I personally like the touch, but that's just from playing some in the stores.  The price (around 750) is as high as I can go.  Sorry if this isn't very specific.  Thoughts?

pringe -- 01/13/2005, 04:31:06 -- #10330

I bought the Korg SP-300 a while back...there was something about the Yam that I didn't like - however, having just bought the Motif 8 I have found the action to be fine - certainly harder than Korg's (esp. if you try the Triton, a nice touch) but useable all the same. For that price I think they are all basically going to do the same job, with the touch down to personal preference. Good luck!

Seaside_Lee -- 01/13/2005, 05:54:36 -- #10334

Hi ziggysane There is a forum that only discusses digital pianos and keyboards 24/7...there you will find all the answers that you ever need ;) heres the link:- http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/forum/6.html many people love their yammies and the harder action ...many love their rolands and Kawais and even sometimes casios? (especially the PX400 which seems to have a lot of bang for the buck) My opinion for what its worth is this:- You cannot really go wrong with Yamaha or Roland products they are built for the gigging musician...try them out and which ever make you prefer the sound and feel of then buy it. Shop for prices on the net and try to get your dealer to match the best price you can find. Many at the forum seem to feel that the P90 is better than the P60 but, has no internal speakers however, that won't matter if you have an amp and speakers? And it seems the P120 is also favoured to the P90 but is quite a bit heavier for lugging around to gigs and obviously dearer in price hope this helps Lee

Seaside_Lee -- 01/13/2005, 06:02:11 -- #10335

One more thing I love yamahas I have a CLP170 in polished ebony at home (I really do not have enough free time to play this beast as much as I want to! - I could do with a spare 24 hours) I also have a casio PX100 as a practise  piano that I play at work However, I really wished Id bought a p90 or p120 now and am in the process of saving the pennies to trade the casio for a Yammie Lee

Jazz+ -- 01/13/2005, 09:52:02 -- #10340

I gigged with a P120 and a P90 for a couple of years and the best thing I did was to sell them. I still have a P250 n my studio. After a couple of hours of fast bebop soloing my wrists would realy hurt from playing the heavy P action. For me, the down action was too heavy, the up action was too firm, and the bottom was too hard. For my hand health I needed a looser, lighter, fully weighted action with a softer bottom to play long jazz gigs. I also found the Yamaha P series acoustic piano notes had an overly loud attack strike causing the notes in phrases to sound dettached and almost clangy, I couldn't get really smooth and flowing legato phrasing in my lines. I am now using a Roland FP2 for its lighter and faster weighted action; the FP2 probably has the lightest yet fully weighted action of any digital piano. The Kurzweils also have fully weighted actions that are light , but their dynamic range is not as wide. I use a Yamaha Motif Rack for its "Vintage 74" Fender Rhodes sound. I use the Rhdes sound for live jazz because I don't care for the sound of loud amplified artificial digital pianos; the Rhodes sounds blends better.

Seaside_Lee -- 01/13/2005, 14:40:00 -- #10355

Hi Jazz+ thats interesting how you don't like the heavy action of the yamahas I bought the casio over a year ago and it was the first weighted keyboard I had owned before that I played on a midi controller keybard and it felt nice and heavy and I loved it. then I bought the CLP170 as I had gotten bitten by the piano bug and the keyboard felt very heavy. Now it doesn't feel heavy at all(I've been playing it for about 8 months) and it has made me find the PX100 too light and not enjoy playing it as much as my Yammie. Infact, if anything I crave an even heavier action! ...the heavier the action the more expression I seem to be able to bring to the table if you know what I mean? Lee

Jazz+ -- 01/13/2005, 15:08:13 -- #10357

I like the heavy Yamaha actions for ballads and for the great control they allow over dynamics. However, for the long hours of fast bebop playing I do those extra heavy action hurt my tendons. It's sort of like trying to sprint long distances wearing heavy hiking boots insead of lighter weight Nike track shoes.

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