I’ve been without a piano for over a year, now. My old Casio Celviano finally gave up the ghost, and ended up in a skip in December 2015.
I didn’t miss it at first – it was a big lump of furniture, near impossible for me to move on my own, and I had certainly got my money’s worth out of it. However, even though I am mainly a guitarist (if I am anything), I used to enjoy tinkering around, and a lot of my songs were originally written on the piano, even if I later adapted them to guitar.
I do have a Roland D10, but while useful for some things, I don’t actually get any pleasure from playing it – I like a weighted keyboard and a proper piano sound.
So for a while, I have been visiting music shops and trying things out. This is actually the reason for my coming across my other recent purchase, my Fender guitar. The search for my perfect piano took longer – after a lot of playing, I had come back to Casio again – which surprised me – and was trying to decide between the Privia PX-160 or the PX-360.
I hadn’t planned on going to the PX-560, in fact I hadn’t seen one, let alone played one! But I saw one on eBay (albeit from a reputable music store, mind) at a silly price; lower than the PX-360, in fact.
I spent yesterday evening going over the respective manuals, reading reviews and listening to YouTube videos. While it may seem ridiculous to buy an instrument you haven’t tried, I have played the other two instruments in the series, and know that the PX-360 and PX-560 share the same keyboard and piano sounds.
Other stuff the PX-560 has is full MIDI capability (yes, I know, I am a musical dinosaur), and also the ability to both record MIDI to internal memory or *audio* (WAV files) to a USB stick. Combine the two, and what stuff I can’t play live, I should be able to put it together a hand at a time, and then roll out to an audio track for my DAW.
It has an internal amp and 2 x 8W speakers, which should be fine for day-to-day use. But of course, it has full mono and stereo line-outs amongst its many sockets.
Unlike my old piano, this one is portable (12kg), and so can be put away when I have a houseful of people, and need more floor-space. A nice floor stand is available, if I want a bit of furniture, but I think I will be happy with my existing X-stand.
So all I have to do now is wait for Tuesday, when it arrives.
The funny part of this story – on Wednesday evening, I was compiling a short-list of possibe keyboards, with prices, weight, and features. I planned to hit the local keyboard centre again this weekend, and wanted something to keep me focused, and remind me of decisions already made of what *not* to buy, and why.
That is when I came across the PX-560 on eBay for “just” £799. A lot of money, but – as I say – cheaper than most folk are charging for the PX-360. And the seller was a bricks-and-mortar music shop, in Grantham, which was reassuring.
After a couple of hours of reading and deliberating (it practically took up my evening), I decided to go for it, and bought it. Then before going to bed, I thought to look up the actual shop’s own website. There they had the same keyboard for the “usual” price of £979.
It was then I became convinced that the bargain £799 was simply a accidental transposition of £979 – a mistake in the eBay listing. I started to imagine I would be contacted on Thursday and told they had made a mistake, and were cancelling. Would eBay allow this? If it was a genuine mistake, would I try to force the sale – after all, I had been told by eBay I was entering into a contract; doesn’t it work both ways? Would it be right for me to force it, under the circumstances? As as result, I went to bed fairly grumpy and unsettled, not knowing what would happen, or how I would react.
Thursday morning, and it then occurred to me to check the seller’s detailed eBay history. Two other PC-560s, both sold in March, for £799. Perhaps it wasn’t a mistake, after all! Then mid-morning, I received notification that it had been despatched for delivery on Tuesday.
Happy Dance!
Surprise. Instead of Tuesday, it arrived today, on Friday.
From a very quick setup and play, it is gorgeous. Any doubts about buying a new keyboard have fled. Even though I am not a good pianist, sitting down at this is vastly removed from my recent experiments with the Roland D10 (which is a *synth*, not a piano, of course).
I’m going to have some fun with this!