Title kind of says it all. I am asking Santa (Mrs. Medic8r) for a piano so that I can see how much of those lessons from 3rd grade to 8th grade have faded. I haven't played anything for years and can be considered a n00b as far as the technicalities of pianos vs keyboards. I'll probably pick up Coldplay, R.E.M.-type sheet music and may try to relearn some of the classical pieces I once knew.

I do know that I want something relatively cheap and with a small footprint. No baby grands yet!

I would like 88 keys, even if I'll never use most of them.

OK, I'm prepared for whatever scorn this might bring on, but the local Costco (my hero!) has a Casio PX-720 for $649. Closest link I could find is for this PX-700. Looks like most web sites on the 720 are from the UK. Any thoughts on this one or any others?

All help is appreciated.

Adam and/or Ken should be able to help you out here. We're actually kinda looking, too, but we're definitely going digital due to space and moving concerns.

Yeah, I'm hoping your bro' and others chime in when they see this.

Digital would be cool if for no other reason than to play baseball stadium music on the organ setting.

I bought my wife this one a couple of years ago and the sound quality is amazing. I would recommend a Yamaha keyboard based off of what I have seen and heard. They do have full 88 key setups as well.

A Yammie for $1K? AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You're funny, Jay. Oh, I see that you're not talking the digital pianos.

Digital pianos tend to cost more, but the action is far superior to a keyboard, and they tend to actually have cabinets, as opposed to needing a stand.

I have a Kawai CA5 (which is their lower end model that still has wood keys), but that cost about $2K, with a significant going out of business markdown.

Shopping for pianos is very much like shopping for audio--you'll end up paying a whole lot more than you intended to.

I would have been pretty happy with the lower end Kawais if I hadn't tried the CA5. Those start at around $1200-1400, if you can talk the sales jerk down.

My best advice is to go to a bunch of shops and see what you like. Remember, the action is the most important--you can always switch to a different midi device later, but you can't change out the keys.

Adam may disagree with me.

JP has gone to the dark side... of serious posts! Anyone else noticed that this thread had not yet been highjacked? Coincidence? I think not!

I agree with Ken - action is the most important thing to me, followed closely by sound quality. I really like Ken's Kawai, btw. I prefer the action on mine by just a tiny bit, but the sound on his. I have a Viscount Andante, which borrows the action from Yamaha but does its own sound. It cost roughly the same as Ken's, I believe. If you're looking for sub $1k digital pianos, I'd suggest looking at the Yamaha P-85 - basic, good action, good sound, and a good deal at $600 or so. Or at around $1k, the P-140 offers a few more features, most notably better sound.

But definitely go try them out. The only reason I ended up with a Viscount (pretty rare, actually - I've never seen another store carry them) and not a Yamaha is from trying them out.

I thought it was the other way around, Adam. Eh. Who knows...

On a side note (and I regret handing you guys this one), I'm taking pipe organ lessons at the moment. I've been practicing at home, but I practiced on the real organ for the first time last night. I think I would be better off practicing on a cheap Casio at home--the feel of the keyboards on the organ is far closer to that than a real piano. I found myself pounding on the keys.

That's really cool! Best of luck!

It's more a matter of finding time to practice. My piano's in The Boy's room, and the organ is 30 minutes away and only really available to me at night (because of work).

That's awesome Ken. Where are you playing, and is it digital or winded?

Oh, it's winded. It's the real deal, with one 32 foot stop. I didn't feel comfortable playing with the church's resonant frequency last night, but I'm pretty sure it's D. It's at my church. My wife bought me a set of 3 lessons at last year's auction, and I've just got around to redeeming them. Only 1 lesson so far.

Why on earth would you regret letting that out. I have not learned to play any instruments and you are only expanding your horizons, I salute you.

Plenty of innuendo to work with there, that's all.

True, very true, I know I had my thoughts but for some reason decided against posting them, possibly because it was just TOO obvious; especially for this crowd.

Ken, that really sounds great. I've never had an opportunity to play a real pipe organ(our church uses no instruments, so my musical?contributions are limited to "acapulco", as some comedian once said, singing in our small choir). Maybe I'll have to find the opportunity to at least try it, since I do enjoy listening to organ compositions.

It's a lot of fun, but is quite difficult. I'm still trying to figure out which shoes to wear.

Organmaster Shoes?

I don't think I'm ready to drop bank on real organ playing shoes... just going through my existing shoes and seeing what works.

How many pairs do you have?