Clavinova pianos anyone?

Have you got room for a used upright piano? Might be someone local to you moving one on for a good price? 

Uprights look lovely but they don't come with a headphone output socket 😉

Fair enough! But they sound and feel much better than a clarinova when you play loud!

But, yeah if you need headphones and a quiet set up they are quite good. Bitd our piano teacher used to always say they were fine up to grade something.. maybe 5? Can't quite remember.

Posted by: cjr61

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My son has outgrown our handmedown electric keyboard and we’ve been recommended a Clavinova due to the high sound quality and weighted keys. Looking in the used market so wondering if anyone has any advice? Seen some from early 2000’s and wondering whether there is a notable difference (for home playing) compared to current models. Budget around £300.

Thanks

Chris

Modern stuff sounds and plays WAY better than old stuff. Sound engines and key action generally improve over time.

So if the budget is £300, look for something new (or a few years old) in that price bracket. Yamaha P145 (or similar) springs to mind.

Sound/feel are all a matter of taste, so look at what's on offer from Yamaha, Kawai and Roland.

I have a Roland LX-705 - whilst it's VERY good, I went to a friend's house the other day... she has some old beaten up piano. It was tuned recently to be fair. Sounded lovely and warm - a joy to play (apart from the sticky keys). And no, I'm not any good at it, but certainly appreciated it.

Clavinovas are the most popular electric pianos, so they tend to be more expensive used. (But would always be easy to sell on at a later date). Personally, I like the Clavinova sound, but they are brighter and more “electric” sounding than some others. My friend ran a music store and sold Yamaha as well as Roland, and always felt that Roland pianos had a warmer sound. But I think it’s a matter of taste.

i think getting a decent electric piano with good weighted keys will be difficult for £300. But I haven’t looked for a used piano for ages, so many things have changed.

Posted by: Yak

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Fair enough! But they sound and feel much better than a clarinova when you play loud!

But, yeah if you need headphones and a quiet set up they are quite good. Bitd our piano teacher used to always say they were fine up to grade something.. maybe 5? Can't quite remember.

Depends on the upright....one that was good quality in the first place, and that's been properly looked after will be lovely.....otherwise it'll sound and feel like the ones dotted around railway stations (or worse)

Thanks for the advice. Will see what upright piano options are available too

Kawai are another good brand for digital pianos.

We like ours. My wife was a skeptic, but now prefers it to the upright she grew up playing, which is now at her sisters house. I can’t remember exactly how much it was, but it was definitely more than 1k new.

Apart from being able to play with headphones, the other advantage is that they don’t need tuning every year!

Yamaha worth a look?

They do weighted analog 'real feel'  keys on a lot of their cheaper models, so they press more like piano keys, and the harder you hit them, the harder the sound is, or you can press them more softly for a softer sound, if that makes sense, so you should be able to pick up a very respectable Yamaha second hand for £300.

Kawai (as mentioned above) and Roland are also good makes so don't get hung up on a Clavinova.  I've a friend that plays one (Clavinova) and although it sounds great we have found that the keys start to get warped after 10 years or so to the point that they can get 'sticky'.  So if you are buying a second hand one you want to try pressing all of the keys quite fast to see if they are slow to return.  We couldn't fix that but we could dismantle it sufficiently to move those keys to a part of the keyboard that didn't see so much action

Another Kawai owner here, MP8 is bloody brilliant, but weighs a flippin ton!