Kawai

My Kawai KG3E was made in 1990. I traded in my Kawai KG1E for this piano along with a cash differential to move from a 5' 4" instrument to a 6' 1" instrument. First, I live in a large city and visited many new and used piano dealers in the area and spoke with a number of technicians to get recommended brand feedback. Kawai and Yamaha were the most frequent brands recommended for reliability and build quality.

As I understand it, my KG3E piano had been well cared for (kept in a climate controlled environment, used in a home, kept clean with the top down when not used and lightly used ).

My piano is a 6 foot model. The bass response in our home is full and warm. The piano tone overall has been voiced warm as well. The sound has been and remains consistent across the keyboard. The piano holds tune amazingly well. The action touch is moderate, perhaps somewhere between a Steinway and current Yamaha and Kawai models. Finally the piano has a good dynamic range.

The technicians I spoke with shared that the late model KG Kawais are "work horses" with found in many clubs, churches and commercial venues throughout Dallas. The general opinion was that they are extremely stable and reliable instruments to buy. What I was told is that pianos really wear out from heavy use and the climate conditions they were stored in, not from age.

Personally I recommend the older KG line of pianos as they are excellent values, I've had very good luck with them, and the technical community in my area thinks highly of them. I get the feeling that the new piano dealers really wish these pianos would simply go away. Perhaps these stable used instruments are competing too much with newly made pianos?

I use the VPC1 exclusively with Pianoteq, running on an ordinary laptop, with an M-Audio interface and 2 KRK Rokit 6" powered speakers. I use USB only, no power to the keyboard, although it does come with an external power supply.

This keyboard has no onboard sound at all. It is purely intended as a PIANO keyboard, for use with simulated electronic piano sounds via MIDI. Some other keyboard instruments can also work, such as harpsichord, etc., but it is not suitable for stage piano use.

The instrument is heavy and bulky. A little hard to move around for performances.

The action is excellent. Feels exactly like a grand piano, with a fairly heavy touch, but not to the point where it's tiring to play, at least not for me, although I've seen reviews that faulted it on this point. It is well made. I've used mine almost daily for two years and it seems no different than when brand new.

The velocity curve default on my software is pretty standard, which is to say it is not idiosyncratic or unusual. The output is very sensitive, from a whisper pianissimo to as loud as you can play captured in seemingly infinite gradation. It defaults to 1 = silent (0 is note off), so it can emulate a piano almost perfectly.

It has three pedals as an included accessory, and has a sostenuto function, so you really can play it just like the grand pianos emulations.

Overall, it is expensive but probably the best choice out there for under $2000 US for a MIDI piano controller with no extraneous nonsense.