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I've been gtting into the dangerous territory of keyboards (dangerous for the wallet!), speciafically Stage Pianos and I'm looking for recommendation in the <£2k sort of price rage (new or second hand). The things I want: Good sounding Piano, EP, Organ (ideally with drawbars), and synth would be a bonus but not essential. 73 Keys (semi-weighted), good keybed. 'Hands-on' design for the controls (for live use without menu diving). Relatively light/portable. Tough/reliable for live gigs and moving around: Gigs every couple of weeks, rehearsals each week, set up at home in-between. Decent professional level type connections and power supply (including a tough IEC type power cable rather than barrel would be ideal). Budget: £2k I have a Yamaha CK 61 that I got about 18 months and it has had a decent amount of use - both at home and for gigs, is good start but I'm starting to feel it is lacking in a couple of areas: Mostly as I'd prefer an extra Octave (especially for split points) and it is starting to feel a bit on the budget end of being a professional instrument e.g. things like a barrel power connector are not as roadworthy as I'd like, the keybed is just 'okay' and the keys are slightly smaller than standard. As I get more into playing I've started thinking an upgrade would probably be worthwhile and noticable for playability, sounds, robustness. Any recommendations? That £2k sort of price seems to be the level that most manufacturers have their entry-level of professional stage pianos: Nord Electro 6D 73 (this is my front-runner) Yamaha CP 73 Viscount Legend 73 Korg SV2 Roland Fantom 07 .....or second hand could get to things like a Nord Stage 2. Or is this just me wanting new stuff?! A: Yes! ...but I think something like a Nord Electro 6D 73 would be quite a significant upgrade to the CK 61 in terms of feel, sounds, robustness. My 'buy stuff justification' maths says: £1,920 for the Nord Electro 6D 73. (or about £1,500 with part-ex for my CK-61). After 10 years (about the time that updating a Nord seems worthwhile) it'd still be worth about £1k (given that the asking priice for an Electro 4 from 2015 is about £1k). So that'd cost me less than £100 per year (or £50 per year if you include the CK-61 being sold). Who can argue with that?! (I'll give you a clue: I'm married to her!). In a word that is increasingly asking for subscriptions/pay monthly and throwaway stuff/things with planned obsolescence I do find that my 'buy stuff justification' for musical instruments a wonderful thing!

I've had one fitted by a great local tech and its been good, definitely does what you'd expect - takes a bit of fine tuning to get it to work without bending the notes sharp however. Sometimes comes a little loose, its a weird design, but always having a screw driver in the bass bag allows for quick adjustments.

I did this - stuck the components (mine is just a single USB output) in a bit of plastic tube then cable tied under my pedal board. Pretty no, cheap and works, yes.

2 nice Fenders in last 2 posts. I do like a sunburst Fender especially a Jazz. Dave

When I bought my Epiphone Les Paul bass for the first time, it came with a Neotech Mega strap. Accidentally found my favourite type of strap. That was handy!

July 1982, Capital Radio Jazz Festival, Knebworth, A highlight among some exceptional artists. Thanks for the music and memories Jimmy.

I found this fascinating - full of insight into The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, his approach to bass, his character.

Nicely done Rosie. That's so much better than having eBait deliver instant gratification.

This came up on another forum, and the advice from several experienced electrical engineers was that a better and more permanent contact between the screw terminal and the wire conductor was achieved if you did not tin the wires, because the copper strands can compress and essentially cold weld to the terminal under the pressure from the screw.

Oh Well - Fleetwood Mac

Deep sadness, I met him once, one of the loveliest people ever RIP , one of my favourite songs

I did that once with The Skids song Into the Valley where i had to de-tune the E to D for that song and forgot to tune it back up again. Played the next song like that and no-one even noticed. Same song, different night, i had it in my head that i de-tuned to Eb rather than D and once again no-one but me noticed. Just goes to show if you play with absolute confidence everyone will thing you're right. Even when wrong. 😂 Dave

That's a great colour too - would look ace under stage lights!

Don't know if this belongs here, but it's a Mustang-ish bass so I'll post it anyway. An acquaintance of mine bought a bass for his 12 year old daughter and asked me to set it up and see if the electronics or hardware needed replacement. It was one of these Harley Bentons: He put some Labella Low Tension flats on it himself, and the bass was...magnificent. Finish, fretwork, electronics, setyp, everything was tip top. Not even for the money, just as an instrument. If you need an affordable short scale bass, get yourself one of these. It's only €229 at Thomann and if I didn't have my vintage Mustang, I'd seriously consider buying one.