BUY NEW DIGITAL PIANOS FOR LESS MONEY! Roland, Yamaha, Casio, Kawai, Kurzweil, & more

UPDATED - April 10, 2013 - Everybody wants the best "deal" they can get when shopping for a product or service. I feel the same way when I go to purchase something. I shop around, do research, compare, and then make a decision. That does take a lot of time and effort and if you're not real familiar with the product or how it's sold, or even what it really does, then that makes it more difficult. That's especially true when one store tells you THEY have the best deal and best product and the next store says the same thing, and so on. Some stores even "guarantee" their low price but unfortunately may have sold you the wrong piano in the first place because they didn't really know what they were talking about. After awhile sometimes you just don't know what to do.

I am an independent digital piano consultant and adviser. I can show you how to get new name brand digital pianos for even less money and help you unravel some confusion you may have from the shopping you have already done. I am an expert when it comes to all of the new digital pianos out there including digital piano brands you probably haven't heard of. I know how they work, why they work, which one is better for you, and which ones to avoid.

I have been working with and playing digital pianos and keyboards for over 40 years, (since I was very young) and have help thousands of people across the country with their piano questions as well as teaching people of all ages how to play piano (and other instruments) and have fun. I give free piano advice to people all across the country and I do it because I am a longtime piano, keyboard, organ, and guitar teacher and musician and I want people to enjoy playing music like I do. There are few things as rewarding and enjoyable as playing a musical instrument, especially a good digital or acoustic piano. Don't wait for the perfect time to play because anytime is the perfect time to enjoy what playing piano can do for you or your family!

Also, I can recommend piano lesson courses to you based on your skill level and musical goals as well as new things you can get to learn to play piano even faster with better results. You will be surprised at just how easy it is to play the piano if you just take time out of your busy lives to try it. That all it takes as long as you love music and want to be a part of it:)



All YOU have to do is contact me and I'll be glad to help. Email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call me at 602-571-1864.

NEW Digital Pianos to AVOID Buying if Possible - STOP HERE & READ!

I have played and continue playing digital pianos since they first came out on the market many, many years ago. I have literally played hundreds of different models and every brand including Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Kawai, Kurzweil, Korg, Suzuki, Williams, Nord, MAudio, Kohler, Orla, Alesis, Samick, GEM, Ketron, Adagio, Adams, Technics, and others, and I know which ones work well and which ones don't. There are a few new brands available these days that I recommend you stay away from buying if at all possible because they simply do not meet very minimum standards in the way way pianos should play and sound. And if they cannot reach even minimum standards, it does not matter what else they do or how little they may cost.

DO NOT be one of those people who purchases a digital piano on just the appearance of the piano or on what you perceive to be something you'll enjoy, because at the end of the day, you may be making a mistake which you won't like. Do yourself a favor and email or call me directly and I will give you personal piano buying advice based on your musical goals and budget so that you and/or family will have a great piano playing experience and not make a buying mistake.

As a pro musician and professional piano teacher who has taught thousands of piano & keyboard students of all ages through the years, it's important to do it right the first time. Please read my piano reviews on this blog and you are welcome to call me direct if you live in the continental US.

If you want more info on digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - NEW DIGITAL PIANOS & BEST MODELS that simulate acoustic Grand & Upright Piano Touch & Tone

People ask me all the time; "which new digital pianos come the closest to reproducing and simulating a "real acoustic" upright or grand piano playing experience? Many people also tell me that their primary concern is getting great acoustic piano tone & touch in the digital piano and NOT so many (or any) "bells & whistles" to interfere with their piano playing and enjoyment. Digital piano "shoppers" also tell me that nearly every piano store they shop at has an agenda to obviously sell their brand while saying very negative things about the brands carried by other piano stores. This unfortunately is very typical and so the piano shopping experience can be frustrating sometimes because you really don't know who or what to believe at the end of the day.

Although everyone want the best quality they can get in a digital piano, the answers are not necessarily quick and easy. Also, many people shopping for new digital pianos have very little if any experience with these kinds of instruments so it is difficult to know what will be best within the budget. This is because there are no "standards" when it comes to reproducing an acoustic piano playing experience. Acoustic upright and baby grand pianos from top brands like Steinway, Bosendorfer, Kawai, Yamaha, Baldwin, Young Chang, Samick, Mason & Hamlin, and many others are all different. If they weren't different then there would probably be only one piano brand. There are many car companies, cell phone companies, computer companies, appliance companies, and other popular products that abound in the market place because they are all different in some very specific ways which offer choices to the consumer. Pianos are like that too. Consumers have choices when it comes to a particular touch and key movement, key resistance, tonality, resonance, and so on. This also does not take into consideration the actual cabinet structure & parts as well as the finish of the cabinet.

So when it comes to digital pianos, the same criteria is used when shopping for one of these instruments. You want to listen to the piano closely to see if you like what you are hearing. Also, look for other things such as a certain"feel" to the keys (light, medium, or heavy), the way they move (quick or stiff), the volume that comes out of the cabinet/speakers (big and full or tinny & weak), the overall quality of tone and the way it sound to you such as the bass response, treble clarity, evenness & smoothness in tone throughout the entire keyboard, progressive weighting of the keys, velocity smoothness, proper pedal movement and damper/sustain reproduction, as well as other technical aspects of the piano. All of this does not include other very popular digital piano features such as USB computer connections, headphone jacks, extra instrument tones and the amount and quality of those instruments, rhythm & drum patterns for timing and play along ability, and other requested functions.

The top digital piano manufacturers right now are (not in any particular order): Kawai, Roland, Casio, Yamaha, & Kurzweil. Korg used to this group but they have pretty much gotten out of that (digital piano) business with the exception of 2 new portable models which are just OK. If you really want specific info on what digital piano might be right for you within your budget, then you are welcome to email or call me directly. I would be happy to help you reach a good decision and show you how to get even lower prices. I have played nearly every new digital piano out ion the market these days (and some that haven't come out yet) and I know what they do and don't do.

I do all of this because as a professional piano teacher and musician, I want to see people enjoy the piano playing experience like I do. There are no words to express just how important music can become in one's life (in a very personal way) no matter how young or how old you are. I teach kids from 3 years old to 93 yrs old and seeing the smiles on people's faces when they're playing piano and enjoying themselves gives me all the reward I really need. I have years of experience with these instruments to give you the advice you're looking for...at no charge. You can also read my reviews of various new digital pianos on this blog as the list is quite extensive.

If you want more info on digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

REVIEW - Greg Bennett Guitars (by Samick) - Surprisingly Excellent for the money! Compare to Fender, Takamine, Epiphone, Ibanez, Dean, and other guitars

I have taught music lessons for well over 30 years including piano, synth, keyboard, organ, and guitar. Guitar was my first instrument and I own about 15 of them (they are all over my studio) including classicals, acoustic-electric, electric Strat style, Les Paul style, 12-strings, bass guitars, and other stringed instruments. I have played guitars and keyboards in various bands through the years and also compose music. I have not written a blog review of guitars before since I primarily concentrate on pianos and related subjects because that is what this blog is mainly about. However that does not mean I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to guitars and what is a good value, as I have played literally thousands of guitars in my music career and understand various organic wood materials and electronic guitar parts and construction. In fact, I have even built a guitar myself but would not do it again (I'm just way too busy for that). I've been asked by some people about my choice of guitars lately in a low price range so I thought it was time to do a guitar review on this blog since I do play and teach guitar.

As a guitar teacher, most students and average players want a well designed guitar that looks, plays, and sounds great for a low price. Typically that price range is from $100-$300 and you can really get a great guitar these days for that kind of money because many low priced guitars have been made in Korea, China, & Indonesia for some years now and a few companies are doing a great job producing quality guitars for low prices over there.

My choice for overall selection, low price, quality sound, good construction, and smooth playability in a low price range (after discounts) goes to an industry leader by the name of Samick manufacturing who produces the Greg Bennett series of guitars. Greg Bennett is a real person (pictured below left) who is an American international guitar designer and professional musician hired by the Samick company many year ago to produce an exclusive and large line of quality guitars under the name of "Greg Bennett." These guitars have been on the market for a number of years now and the Samick company (based in Korea with US headquarters in Nashville, Tn) has sold thousands upon thousands of them throughout the US and the world based on the numbers I have seen.

I have tried out and played almost every guitar Greg Bennett has in this line-up and I am very impressed with the workmanship, overall tone, and playability of these instruments for prices selling generally between $100-$300 and some nice upgraded models over $300. The attention to detail and the quality materials and parts used in making the guitars were impressive, even on the guitars under $200, and that's a difficult thing to do. The design of the headstock, the tuning keys, the overall body and solid tops on many models, and the full tone were surprising, especially up against better known brands like Fender, Epiphone, Takamine, Ibanez, Yamaha, and a few others.

The Greg Bennett guitars use first rate materials like tight grained spruce or cedar solid tops, mahogany & rosewood backs and sides on their acoustic guitars, Grover brand tuners which really help the guitars stay in tune, and nice inside bracing and construction. The electronics and pickups in the electric and bass guitars seem to be well built and solid and the "fit and finish" of the various models (and there are many) all seem to be as good as much higher priced brands such as Martin, Fender or Gibson in many respects. Most of the Greg Bennett guitars are factory production made instruments and not "hand made" so I am not comparing these guitars to hand made guitars over $1000.

The Samick company has it's own large and highly advanced production facilities (pic on left) and has made many guitars for other famous companies through the years including Washburn, Epiphone, Fender, Yamaha, and many others so some of the famous name brands out there were actually made by the Samick guitar factory believe it or not! To me, that says a lot about the quality that Samick has been putting out for a long time. I own some well known brands of guitars that cost a lot more money than the Samick "Greg Bennett" models and I have to say that I enjoy playing some of the Greg Bennett's just as much as my higher priced "famous brands." Of course some of the nicer handmade guitars from Martin, Gibson, Fender, and others ARE better than the Greg Bennett models and that should go without saying. But they are substantially more money. But in the $100-$300 price range, I believe these GB guitars are worth every penny and the Samick company stands behind them with lifetime guarantees on many of the models which is impressive to me.

So if you are looking for a good, solid, dependable, great sounding & playing new guitar for a low price, I would not hesitate to recommend the Greg Bennett guitars. They do have a web site and I have provided a link below. By the way, I have met Greg bennett in person on more than one occasion and he is as nice of a guy as is his namesake guitars. And Greg plays guitar like a monster!:)...but in a very good way, his style and detail to his craft are outstanding and as a long time guitarist, I am equally impressed by his playing ability and guitar knowledge as I am with the Greg Bennett guitars. I would not hesitate to recommend these guitars to anyone looking for a good buy on a great low priced guitar. I do know however, that the Greg Bennett guitars can be difficult to find and are not in the typical large guitar stores such as Guitar Center and Sam Ash Music. I understand this is because Samick wants it's Greg Bennett guitars to be sold by generally smaller music instrument shops who tend to understand guitars and guitar playing better than the big chain stores. So if you want more info on the Greg Bennett guitars, just shoot me an email and I will help you out as well as get you lower prices.


http://www.gregbennettguitars.com/

Also check out this video below of Greg Bennett Guitars being played live:

REVIEW - Williams Symphony Digital Piano - NOT Recommended

I have reviewed many digital pianos from all of the major brands, and I do enjoy playing them. I am a big believer in digital pianos as a great alternative to acoustic pianos and the major digital piano manufacturers such as Kawai, Casio, Yamaha, Roland, & Kurzweil, & Korg have done a very good job in producing some high quality instruments for lower prices.  However the Williams piano is not a major brand because it is not actually a piano manufacturer, nor does this company actually exist outside of the fact that it is a "name" of the Guitar Center company "private label brand" of instruments. The Williams brand is also carried by Guitar Center subsidiaries such as Musicians Friend, Woodwind & Brass and other Guitar Center owned companies. So it stands to reason that the company that benefits the most from this brand is Guitar Center and all of the Williams ads will direct you exclusively to Guitar Center company stores. The pianos are made by an unknown manufacturer(s) in China for Guitar Center and in my opinion should never be considered seriously if you actually want a "real piano experience." I am not saying that pianos produced in China are bad because some are actually very good. It's really about the quality level of that builder, it's materials & parts, as well as the skill of it's factory people. I have reviewed other Williams cabinet models on my blog and they seem to be pretty much all the same as far as piano touch, tone, and electronics.

The Symphony model (left pic) appears to offer at lot for a low price in a decent looking furniture style cabinet. And that's the problem...you just cannot get something for nothing...unless you are not getting what what you think you are and don't know it. The major digital piano companies like Yamaha, Casio, Roland, & Kawai also have these types of full featured furniture cabinet pianos (with drums & chord accompaniments) but not until you get to about $1400 internet price. And they are not offering it to you for higher prices just because they have a better, more popular name. They simply produce a much better product at much higher standards than the Williams models. I have had people say to me, "but I'm just a beginner or don't play at all, so shouldn't this Williams piano be good enough for me?" My answer would be...no. I would not recommend it to anyone in my family nor any of my friends so why would I recommend one to anyone else?

The Williams Symphony is selling on the internet for about $700-$800 right now which is half the price of its competitors models, and so the question is...how do they do that? The answer is, they do it producing a very poor quality electronic piano (in my opinion) when it comes to piano touch response, piano tone, polyphony memory, proper pedal sustain, and other important aspects of the piano.  When you use cheaper electronics, construction, and parts, you can certainly reduce price, and that's what they have done.

As far as a quality musical instrument goes, you could purchase one of the latest model Yamaha or Casio $200-$300 76-note keyboards that more than outperforms these Williams full size pianos pianos in most ways (except that they are not 88-key weighted) including key touch response, dynamics, instrument sound quality, and many other features. These new low priced keyboards out perform the Williams pianos in many ways because the Williams uses inferior electronics (in my opinion) and puts them into an inexpensive piano cabinet that really should not sell for more than 300-400 because that's all it's worth as far as I'm concerned. And if you really want a good 88-key digital piano for around $800 or so, you would be much better off getting the Yamaha DGX640 or Casio PX330 which use the kind of key touch and electronics that new pianos should have as compared to the Williams. And the music and performance that comes out of it? Here's a quote (below) from a piano teacher who purchased one of these pianos not knowing what she was really getting herself into. She reviewed it on another web site so that others would not make the same mistake she did:

"I am a music teacher who bought this digital piano as a temporary instrument to help me begin my studio.  I wasn't expecting a fabulous piano, but I was surprised how terrible this instrument was.  First the pre-drilled holes weren't aligned for assembly.  The keys and pedals are stiff and insensitive.  The sound quality is very poor.  Finally, about 9 months after we purchased it, it wouldn't even turn on.  Do not be lured in by the cheaper price.  You wll get far less than you paid for."

Also, I am always surprised when I see positive reviews for this piano. I suspect those reviews are written by people who have no idea what a piano is supposed to play and sound like, which is the likely scenario. And many people really don't know, and that's the problem. As a piano instructor for many years, I would not recommend a Williams piano to any student of mine no matter how low their skill level is because the key touch response on this piano can cause bad playing habits.

As a piano goes, the Williams Symphony digital cabinet piano is simply a big disappointment to me. I wanted to like it because the price is low and it was in a cabinet. However, it only has 32-note polyphony memory (should be at least 64, and more like 128 based on today's standards) which drastically reduces it's ability to sound good and play smoothly as compared to many other digital pianos for under $1000, it has a very poor dynamic response for key volume control and smoothness, and the sustain pedal is off/on only with no progressive (1/2 pedaling) sustain which a piano player at any skill level should have since all acoustic pianos have it. But that is not something you would probably be aware of until you actually started to play this piano and spent some time with it, and then it would be too late if you purchased it.

However, if you have low expectations in a digital piano, want some fun rhythms and accompaniments regardless of the tone quality, want a furniture style cabinet that appears to be nice on the outside, and you don't have much money, then this may be the perfect piano for you.  Otherwise, get a low priced piano from the actual piano manufacturers including Yamaha, Roland, Kawai, Korg, or Kurzweil. By the way, Williams is not the only brand that I don't care for because there are a few others including Benjamin Adams, Suzuki, and Adagio. Finally, the Williams Symphony weighs 154 lbs which is too heavy of an instrument for a low priced digital piano, and also heavier cabinet weight does not necessarily equal quality.

Here are the specs for the Williams Symphony piano:

KEYBOARD: 88-note, hammer-action keyboard
MAX. POLYPHONY: 32
VOICES: 138 Voices, (Including ten Asian folk instrument voices), Five quick select voice buttons and 2 banks
VOICE MODE:Layer (dual) voice, Lower (split) voice
VOICE EFFECTS: Reverb, Chorus
SET UP: Power On/Off, Main Volume Control: Min-Max, Accomp Volume Control:
Min-Max
NUMERIC PAD: 12 keys
DISPLAY: 16-Character LCD
REGISTRATION MEMORY: 9
DEMONSTRATION: Ten songs
RECORDING: Four songs, 3 track recording
OVERALL CONTROL: Transpose, Tempo, Touch response: soft, normal, hard, fixed,Voice split point, Accompaniment split point
AUTO BASS CHORD MODE: Single, Fingered, Piano, Off
AUTO-ACCOMPANIMENT STYLE: 100 Auto-accompaniment styles, Five quick select style buttons and 2 banks
ACCOMPANIMENT CONTROL: Synchro start, Start/Stop, Introduction/Ending, Fill-In Variation, Metronome, Auto harmony (four types)
PLAY ALONG SONGS: 50 songs
FUNCTION Reverb level, Chorus level, Touch Sensitivity, Split point for voice, Split point for auto accompaniment, Master Tune, Drum kit selection, Harmony type selection
AUXILIARY JACKS: Headphone x 2, Line Out, Line In, USB Device Port, Power In, MIDI, In/Out/Through
PEDALS: Sustain Pedal, Sustenuto Pedal, Soft Pedal
VOLTAGE: AC 120V
AMPLIFIER: 20W x 2
DIMENSIONS
54.2 x 20 x 33.9 inches
(1377mm x 510mm x 862mm)
WEIGHT: 154.3lbs/70 Kg

Like I say, the Williams has a lot of functions and features on this Symphony model, but quantity does not necessarily equate to quality. Please do your homework before you make a purchase you so that you can get something that will work properly when it comes to playing a piano. As for product reliability, my personal experiences have not been too good with the Williams models I have seen and played. Please note that I do not hate these Williams pianos because they are what they are and for some people they may be OK. But if you are looking to get a good piano playing experience out of them along with long term reliability, then there are other better choices in my opinion, many of which I have reviewed on this blog. To read more about other Williams models and other pianos, please search through my blog review using the search bar for more info.

If you want more info on these and other pianos and lower prices than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call me direct at 602-571-1864