Stage Pianos

[SumOne]

I've been doing some nerding on Nord Electro 73 prices new vs second hand:

 

• V1, 2001, ? Now £600
• V2, 2006 £1,400. Now £900
• V3, 2008 £1,500. Now £1,000
• V4,2012 £1,600. Now £1,300
• V5 2015 £1,700. Now £1,400
• V6 2018 £1,900. Now £1,600

 

It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of financial difference to buy new or second hand if you plan on owning for 10 years then selling as they start to de-value more once they are a few versions old. If fact, buying new is perhaps financially better in some ways. e.g.

• a 13 year old V4 today = £1,300, in 10 years it'll be worth roughly £700 (if it is ballpark equivilant to a 23 year old V1 price today), so that'll cost £600 for 10 years use.
• V7 is quite overdue, if history is any guide then it'll be about £2,200 and would be worth roughly £1,700 10 years later, so that'll cost £500 for 10 years of use.

 

A selling point of the Nord is how well known they are and how well they hold their value. I think the Viscount Legend One 73 is still my favorite though (and is a bit cheaper at £1,555), but I imagine that if I went to sell it after 10 years there would be a much smaller market and probably more devaluation than a Nord. But in an ideal world I'll still be happy with whatever I get and it'll last me longer than that. 

Edited 10 hours ago by SumOne

[Hellzero]

Buying a Nord Electro 73 new is a very good idea indeed.

[LawrenceH]

I tried a lot of stage pianos before PMT closed their doors.

 

My 2p:

The Nords sound good and have great interfaces, the samples are all somehow more musical and characterful than a lot of the competition. But, the nicest Rhodes samples tonally are lacking depth/richness because the samples just aren't big enough. Keyscape absolutely runs rings round them. Likewise, the Steinway D sample shows its age which is a shame because it's nicer tonally than the bigger 'White Grand' (Steinway A). The Yamaha grand sample is better than any of Yamaha's own. One general criticism of the piano samples is lack of 'ppp' samples, they could have a softer tone at the bottom. Hammond sounds great. The key to pricing stability is their sound library, but get a model with resonance modelling. Crap actions on the electro, weighted or otherwise, passable on the stage but far from the best.

 

Yamaha YC/CP: VERY disappointing pianos, just bland digital-sounding. Shame as the organs on YC were good and the interfaces are great. Didn't like the action on the 73 or the 88.

 

 

Looking at 88 key models which I appreciate you're not sold on:

 

Yamaha p525: much better samples and action vs CP. Good if you don't want all the organ stuff

 

Roland, all the pianos sounded awfully dull except the RD2000 'German Stage' Expansion which was actually good (also nice action). The rest haven't surpassed the old 700NX IMO.

 

Kawaii: pretty good sounds, certainly musical, decent action too (88 note weighted tho). I ended up with an MP7SE. Organ/FX not as good as the Nord but the piano key/sound connection is the best of the bunch. Not light though!

 

Something I'd like to take a punt on, but haven't tried, is one of the Studiologic Numa X - either the 73 or the GT. Demos/reviews of the EPs and the downloadable Steinway D sound superb to my ears. Not sure if they have organ sounds though

Edited 3 hours ago by LawrenceH

[SumOne]

1 hour ago, LawrenceH said:

I tried a lot of stage pianos before PMT closed their doors.

 

My 2p:

The Nords sound good and have great interfaces, the samples are all somehow more musical and characterful than a lot of the competition. But, the nicest Rhodes samples tonally are lacking depth/richness because the samples just aren't big enough. Keyscape absolutely runs rings round them. Likewise, the Steinway D sample shows its age which is a shame because it's nicer tonally than the bigger 'White Grand' (Steinway A). The Yamaha grand sample is better than any of Yamaha's own. One general criticism of the piano samples is lack of 'ppp' samples, they could have a softer tone at the bottom. Hammond sounds great. The key to pricing stability is their sound library, but get a model with resonance modelling. Crap actions on the electro, weighted or otherwise, passable on the stage but far from the best.

 

Yamaha YC/CP: VERY disappointing pianos, just bland digital-sounding. Shame as the organs on YC were good and the interfaces are great. Didn't like the action on the 73 or the 88.

 

 

Looking at 88 key models which I appreciate you're not sold on:

 

Yamaha p525: much better samples and action vs CP. Good if you don't want all the organ stuff

 

Roland, all the pianos sounded awfully dull except the RD2000 'German Stage' Expansion which was actually good (also nice action). The rest haven't surpassed the old 700NX IMO.

 

Kawaii: pretty good sounds, certainly musical, decent action too (88 note weighted tho). I ended up with an MP7SE. Organ/FX not as good as the Nord but the piano key/sound connection is the best of the bunch. Not light though!

 

Something I'd like to take a punt on, but haven't tried, is one of the Studiologic Numa X - either the 73 or the GT. Demos/reviews of the EPs and the downloadable Steinway D sound superb to my ears. Not sure if they have organ sounds though

Nice one, that's very useful. 

 

 

[Hellzero]

1 hour ago, LawrenceH said:

Something I'd like to take a punt on, but haven't tried, is one of the Studiologic Numa X - either the 73 or the GT. Demos/reviews of the EPs and the downloadable Steinway D sound superb to my ears. Not sure if they have organ sounds though

As I own the controller version of it (SL88 GT Mk2) with their Numa Player, I can confirm that the Steinway D is quite decent (very similar to the XLN Addictive Keys Studio Grand), but certainly not up to the level of the VI Labs Modern D or the VSL Synchron (or Studio) Concert D-274 or VSL Studio Concert D 1887 (love this one) or Modarrt Pianoteq 9 Steinway Model D New York and Hamburg, for instance (yes, I do have the full bundles from each company... 🤦🏻🤪😉 ).

 

I can also confirm that there are some very good organs with the Numa Player.

 

Check this, I think the guy has tried everything on the Numa X 73:

 

 

That said, a Numa X Piano 73 or 88 or GT or the MIDI controller version (SL Mk2 73 or 88 or GT), Modarrt Pianoteq 9 and an iPad will give you all the sounds needed and way more, plus an excellent integrated soundcard with ultra low latency (Numa Piano X or SL Mk2), so no need for an external soundcard.

[Hellzero]

And remember that Studiologic and Nord share the same keybed: Fatar (same company as Studiologic).

[LawrenceH]

My understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, is that the Steinway in the Numa player is not the same as the downloadable update one for the Numa X. The original Numa D samples were rather lukewarmly received but the update is considered, and to my ears from comparing demos is, a substantial upgrade.

 

The keybeds for the Electro (TP100) and Stage(TP40) are also not the same as the 73 (TP110) and the 88 GT (TP400w). Supposedly they represent noticeable improvements, but I'm just going by user reports. Also the Nords aren't graded, and the Nord Stage action is for whatever reason not the same as the slightly nicer version of the TP40 on the Nord Piano (those I can confirm from my own experience).

 

How do you find the GT action? I'm not a great pianist though I did study for over 10 years, but I do have for reference a very nice and still quite well-regulated Model O that I inherited from my grandma (who was good). I've never found a digital that felt anything like the real thing, but the top Roland/Kawai portable actions do at least feel responsive and musical.