Yamaha Stage Piano far too heavy to carry

Joined
Aug 5, 2017
Messages
43
Reaction score
5
Hi all,
I am joining a band soon and found that my Yamaha CP33 Stage Piano is ridiculously heavy and cumbersome. Sounds brilliant and plays beautifully but for one person to lug around its a total nightmare.
I thought about selling it and buying something lighter, maybe even sacrifice some sound quality, does anyoone have any advice?
Richie
 

happyrat1

Destroyer of Eardrums!!!
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
13,746
Reaction score
5,531
Location
GTA, Canada
Take a look at the Roland Juno DS88, Total weight in about 34 lbs. Also not excessively expensive. Very decent sounding pianos as well as various organs, brass, woodwind, synth, etc sounds.

Gary ;)
 
Joined
Aug 5, 2017
Messages
43
Reaction score
5
I forgot to ask, does the Juno have a reasonably decent Hammon Organ sound? I thought about buying an emulator to drive through the MIDI channel, as these give an accurate rendition, and the band does a lot of songs with this classic sound.But there goes another £180 or so...
 

happyrat1

Destroyer of Eardrums!!!
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
13,746
Reaction score
5,531
Location
GTA, Canada
It does have a decent selection of organ presets, however, asking whether or not they would satisfy a true hammond freak would be beyond my range of ability.

While it does possess a decent tweakability matrix of parameters it doesn't possess a full range of drawbars.

Likewise the 88 has weighted hammer action keys and not waterfall keys like a hammond.

I'd say that for the odd 70's rock organ style of piece it would perform well enough, but if you are after a pure hammond sound then perhaps you should be looking at adding a rack module such as the Ferrofish B4000+

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1050996-REG/ferrofish_b4000_authentic_organ_emulatoe.html

Ultimately you should try and find a Juno DS locally and test drive the sounds for yourself.

Any responses you receive from forums will, be highly subjective.

Gary ;)
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2017
Messages
29
Reaction score
36
I mostly play classic rock in bars or parties on the weekend. None of the drunks I play for could tell a Hammond from a harmonica. Heck, my own band mates call everything I play "piano", as in strings, organ, whatever - it's all just piano to them.

Why do I feel like Rodney Dangerfield... I don't get no respect!

But hey Richard, just buy what sounds good to you like Gary said, and that Juno DS would certainly work just dandy.

My 2 centavos. Oh, and have fun :)
 

happyrat1

Destroyer of Eardrums!!!
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
13,746
Reaction score
5,531
Location
GTA, Canada
I mostly play classic rock in bars or parties on the weekend. None of the drunks I play for could tell a Hammond from a harmonica. Heck, my own band mates call everything I play "piano", as in strings, organ, whatever - it's all just piano to them.

Why do I feel like Rodney Dangerfield... I don't get no respect!

:)


Thanks for that bit of cheer. I almost spit up my coffee with laughter when I read the "hammond vs harmonica" line :D :D :D

Gary ;)
 
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Messages
130
Reaction score
48
FWIW --

Take a look at the Casio PX-360, its predecessor PX-350, and the two other Casio stage pianos -- PX-5s and PX560

They weigh around 25 pounds, which is close to minimum weight for _anything_ that has 88 weighted keys. I think the PX-5s has a drawbar-organ simulator built in. They all have full connectivity -- 1/4" Line Out jacks, real 5-pin MIDI In/Out, as well as MIDI-over-USB.

HappyRat's suggestion of a software "clonewheel organ" makes sense. I did a quick look, and came up with this brand-new entry (at $99):

http://gg-audio.com/

But you'd have to accept the trade-off of being dependent on a computer.

. Charles (who owns a PX-350).
 

HRF

Joined
Mar 8, 2021
Messages
10
Reaction score
4
Hi all,
I am joining a band soon and found that my Yamaha CP33 Stage Piano is ridiculously heavy and cumbersome. Sounds brilliant and plays beautifully but for one person to lug around its a total nightmare.
I thought about selling it and buying something lighter, maybe even sacrifice some sound quality, does anyoone have any advice?
Richie
I had somewhat of the same problem with my Kurzweil PC2X. It got too cumbersome to haul around. I bought a Yamaha MX88. The action is decent, and it has a lot of really good sounds, and weighs about 30#. Being newer, the acoustic piano sounds were obviously better than those in the PC2X. It's really simple to do layers and splits. At first I was upset that the board came with 128 factory performances...none of which I would use, but, there is a way to overwrite them. If you can find a dealer that has one in stock, go try it. I've found that there is no one perfect do-it-all keyboard, but As my main board, it works for me.
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2017
Messages
5,715
Reaction score
3,088
Location
Lancashire, UK.
Time moves on and the band split! It’s in my bedroom being used for recording! But thanks anyway for replying.

You were given advice five years ago yet we have zero idea what happened.

How about closing the thread by telling us what action you took.

Its in my bedroom tells us zilch
 
Joined
Aug 5, 2017
Messages
43
Reaction score
5
Time moves on and the band split! It’s in my bedroom being used for recording! But thanks anyway for replying.
You were given advice five years ago yet we have zero idea what happened.

How about closing the thread by telling us what action you took.

Its in my bedroom tells us zilch
Hmmm….
I didn’t get notifications until yesterday some 5 years after the discussion. I thanked everyone for their help five years back and heard no more. But whilst you have no dog in this fight ie you didn’t post originally, I take your point. So in reply , as I said , it’s in my bedroom and it’s easy to deduce what happened ie I kept it and didn’t buy a lighter unit as the Band Split.
So a Final thanks to yesterdays poster who offered helpful advice, now please consider this thread closed.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 4, 2012
Messages
1,560
Reaction score
735
Hmmm….
I didn’t get notifications until yesterday some 5 years after the discussion. I thanked everyone for their help five years back and heard no more. But whilst you have no dog in this fight ie you didn’t post originally, I take your point. So in reply , as I said , it’s in my bedroom and it’s easy to deduce what happened ie I kept it and didn’t buy a lighter unit as the Band Split.
So a Final thanks to yesterdays poster who offered helpful advice, now please consider this thread closed.
biggles is reacting to a disturbing fact about this forum, unlike other forums i belong to; someone asks question and one of the regulars takes time out to do the extensive research of downloading manuals to read through functionality, peruse the market to provide options, etc.. The original poster is never heard from again. Makes a regular wonder why we waste our time even providing answers. I'm quite certain that is what he is reacting to. My two cents...
 
Joined
Aug 5, 2017
Messages
43
Reaction score
5
biggles is reacting to a disturbing fact about this forum, unlike other forums i belong to; someone asks question and one of the regulars takes time out to do the extensive research of downloading manuals to read through functionality, peruse the market to provide options, etc.. The original poster is never heard from again. Makes a regular wonder why we waste our time even providing answers. I'm quite certain that is what he is reacting to. My two cents...
Okay point taken. It’s difficult though as these things need to be mulled over sometimes for a few weeks or months before a decision is reached by the poster. Sometimes no decision as in my case as events overtook me. But I didn’t just abandon the posts, I thanked everyone and went off to give it some thought. I do understand the frustration of posting advice and being left to hang as it were, so I’ll try harder next time to draw a line under it. Other forums are often technical queries rather than choice of instrument and it’s much easier to say “thanks guys problem solved”
Okay that’s my view, thread closed please!
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
13,996
Messages
86,233
Members
13,104
Latest member
Miller Hadlee

Latest Threads

Top