Yamaha YPG-235 76-Key Portable Grand Piano

My kids just starting taking piano lessons, so we wanted to get a portable keyboard to practice on with headphones and to travel with.It never occured to me that this would not ship with a power adaptor! Huh? Anyhow, I have extra power adaptors from my long history of external 5.25" hard drives and they work perfectly (they are generally 12V 3A and the adaptors I saw on amazon for this piano are 12V 1A and the plug fits perfectly).It is also bigger than I imagined in my mind. It is going to take up a lot of space whenever we decide to bring it along during traveling. I probably should have taken out a measuring tape to get an idea so I would not be suprised, however Yamaha does not make a Graded Soft Touch keyboard with 61 keys and I have already ruled out the non-Yamaha keyboard based on quality or price. So there really are no smaller keyboards I would have chosen as an alternative.It is 46-3/8" x 5-3/8" x 16-1/4" and weighs 18 lbsI do not play piano myself (tho I was a musician back in the day), but my wife does and she was impressed with it. There are a TON of options, however all we really need right now is the piano and this keyboard has a very nice "easy" button. It is the only black button on the keyboard. Whatever options you were futzing with, push that button and you are back to a basic piano. Very nice!The GST is not as close to the feel of real piano keys as I had hoped, but I did not really want to spend $500 and up for a "better feel and sound". This is plenty good enough. As it is, you press softly and the keyboard plays softly, you press harder and it plays louder, which is all we really needed.My headphones (Sony MDR-SA1000 DJ Stereo Headphones) already had a 1/4" plug adaptor and via my headphones, it sounds great (not exactly like a grand piano, but close enough).I have not yet tried the USB option, but I shall have to try that out soon.

Okay, so they put the wrong picture in the ad at first. Looks like they've corrected that problem. The other reviewers killed this product, just because it didn't come with the stinking "Survival Kit". They didn't even talk about the actual keyboard. I did a lot of research (as you should do when you buy something online), and knew the "Survival Kit" didn't come with it. Whatever. Other than the AC adaptor, that "Survival Kit" is worthless anyway (I bought it separately. The headphones and pedal suck. Pony up the extra 20 bucks to get a good M-Audio pedal......and some decent headphones, if you need 'em).The bottom line is...you can't beat this product for the money. It's got some great sounds on it! The Rotary Organ and Honky Tonk Piano sound sweeeeeet! Not to mention the awesome Grand Piano sound, strings, orchestra (and over 400 other voices). Plus, tons of effects, drum beats, accompaniments, etc...and a USB port! And it's also got the Yamaha Education Suite that can teach you the basics.We've had it for about a month and are thrilled with it. The only drawback? I wish it had a little more volume. It's plenty loud for practicing around the house...but if you're gonna play with a drummer, you'll definitely need an amp.I will say that this model I am reviewing is the 2011 model (obviously they over-produced). I was able to get mine $50 cheaper than the current model (practically no difference whatsoever...even down to the exact same button configuration and color scheme). I've had no problems at all with mine, thus far. But search around Amazon. If the newer model is the same price (and as of this writing, it is)...I'd get that one.

I was surprised by the size of the box this keyboard came in. First thoughts were about where to put it. I'm not sure some of the generic stands would work with this. It's equipped with special fixtures for what must be a dedicated stand. Because of the size it would probably be wise to get a dedicated one over a "fits all" version.It takes a while to wade through the many voices. I like the ability to enter voice number or use the selector to spin through the choice. Some of the voice names are quite abbreviated and not clear. Also some voices are much better than others. One thing I noticed is that some of the voices are not loud enough compared with the accompaniment. Also the Dual Voice and Split Voice commands I sometimes mix up. The instructions for setting up Split Voice are incorrect. It says left of the split line when it means right (or something like this).Saying all of this, this is such an excellent keyboard. It's feature packed enough to be fun, but looks really good, almost like a professional instrument. Some of the ones in the electronics stores look terrible in comparison. It's large and reassuringly weighty. I bought a power adaptor with it, but it can run off batteries. You'd need 8 or so D-Cells. But while not on the move, I'd recommend the PA-150 which amazon carries. It's apparently more energy efficient and that's a good thing because how many of us unplug these when not in use?The basic functions of this keyboard are totally intuitive. However there's some great features which I haven't yet worked out, mostly because I'm having such fun with those I have. Also there's some terminology on the keyboard which doesn't make much sense to me. I'm quite technical but a bit out of date with the buzzwords. Finally if you want to use headphones with this keyboard, it needs a larger (1/4 inch) connector. Many headphones have a smaller connector than that, so you'll need an adaptor if you don't have one.Yamaha is reputed for having some of the best sounds in electronic keyboards. Despite the very reasonable pricing on this, it's an excellent instrument that thrills totally. I imported it into Canada and the border guard completely failed to believe its value until I showed proof. If your budget is over $100 and you can't stretch to $500 or whatever the next model up costs, you won't regret getting the YPG-235.