I'm planning on buying my 13 yr old son a keyboard for his birthday and wanted some recommendations on something for a beginner. He's doing RCM grade three piano and we have a nice conventional instrument which he uses, but he's really into rock and wants to experiment with different sounds. I'm probably thinking of getting a second-hand instrument and don't want to spend more than 150 GBP. I see plenty of Yamaha and Casios for sale but don't know what to avoid. Thanks David
If your son's having piano lessons on a real piano, or at least on a stage piano/home piano, then I really recommend you save up more and get one yourself. Low-budget keyboards won't offer him 88 hammer keys - instead you'll get 61 plasticky keys. There are cheap Yamaha home-piano models like the Arius series which is a stripped down Clavinova, or you could get a used P120/P140 which is a home portable piano. From other manufacturers you should also take a peek at Kawai ES6 which is a very good keyboard for its price, and some Casio Privias aren't so bad either. But all those are more then 150 GBP. But think of it this way... You could go now and just buy a cheap Yamaha PSR which your son will overgrow in a couple of months and won't be able to progress much since the plasticky keys. Then you'll be forced to buy a better keyboard spending more money- or just save up a bit more and get the real deal. I know I spent way too much money thinking the same way. I kept buying low/midrange keyboards cause i wanted them "now" and i was never fully satisfied until i got my Yamaha CP33. But - if your son's doing this only for fun, and doesn't expect/want much from it, then just go and buy something cheap like the PSR
Thanks for the reply. We have a baby grand at home, so no problem with the conventional instrument, what he would really like is an electronic instrument with a number of different voices and effects - we used to call them synthesizers in the 1980s! If the budget instruments are not worth bothering with I'll have to up the budget. What sort of figure will I need to look at to get something worthwhile? David
If you're looking for something new then you have several options. 1. stay away from Roland They offer less options and features for the same price as others. 2. Don't buy an arranger keyboard (the one with styles onboard) They have very limited, or even no option to tweak sounds. Korg has a lot of keyboards in the low/midrange price range such as the X50, TR or the M50, but the latest one costs a fair amount. Yamaha has only the MO but that one also costs a fair share. If you're going for used keyboards look for something like a Triton classic, Triton LE, Yamaha Motif (classic, NOT the ES or XS) and such.
I let my 9 year old play with an old Korg Poly 800 & 15 watt Epiphone amp that was just sitting around. They can both be purchased on ebay for a song (pun intended ;-)). He can make lot's of cool sounds, and is learning the basics of synthesizers too.
