[zebeddy]

Hi All
I am looking to buy a digital piano in order to start learning the piano. I thought I may buy one off of ebay as I may love it or I may lose interest (I hope it will be the former). I thought I would buy a Clavinova off of ebay.

There is a CLP 360, CLP810S, CLP 155, CLP411, CVP 30 and a CVP 55 all for the same price range.
Despite my best efforts to look for descriptions of these models I cannot find anything.

So, do you guys have any recommendations as to which would be best to buy (or even an order of best to worst?)
I am brand new to pianos and want a digital piano that has a full keyboard, touch sensitivity, and scope for me to improve in the future (in whatever direction that may be)
Thanks to anyone who may offer help and guidence.

[zebeddy]

As an extra note, the pianos were released in the following years:
CVP 30 1989
CLP 360 1990
CVP 55 1991
CLP 155 1994
CLP411 1996
CLP810S 1998

Is it as simple as the latest piano to be released will be the best? I was told that the CVP range are better than the CLP range. Is this true and if so would a CVP that is 7yrs older than a CLP piano be better?

Thanks again

[markymark]

These items are more or less unheard of nowadays and it is a long time since I've ever heard of these models never mind seen them.

When Yamaha brought out Clavinovas, they produced CLP and CVP models that more or less came out together. In fact, the modern models still exist and co-exist in the same way. The main difference is that the CLP is mostly focused on a piano with harpsichord, vibes, organ sound - fairly basic on the voices menu. The CVP has more of a variety of sounds with rhythms as well as the same keyboard touch - in a nutshell, those are the main differences.

As far a key response is concerned, they will be much of a muchness but around 1994/95 (?) Yamaha introduced AWM2 quality sound samples which improved the authenticity of the instrument sounds, most notably that of the piano.

Buying an instrument online can be risky when you don't know what to expect, but even more so when the instrument is second hand. You can't try out the instrument and check the keyboard response, sound, etc. Some of those older 80s models can be susceptible to problems with the velocity sensors and keyboard action as they get older so you need to get some indication as to the physical state of the instrument. It's also worth mentioning that modern CLP and CVP Clavinovas will leave these models standing in terms of sound quality, keyboard response and acoustic authenticity so don't be lured into thinking that a Clavinova ten years ago will be more or less the same thing with a few extra sounds thrown in - that is so not the case!

As digital instruments are upgraded, the older models devalue almost immediately so I'm not really surprised that the instruments are so similarly priced. Personally, I would try for something post 1996 if this is your price range. The later models would be better for the AWM2 sound samples alone.

[speedy7]

I've just been through this.
Plenty of them on Ebay.

We just searched for Clavinova's that were within 25 miles of us. When we saw one we thought looked interesting I arranged a visit and listened / played it.

My wife who is far more accomplished than I played the CLP-150 and the CVP301 (the latter at a friends house).

Of these two, she thought the 301 sounded a bit muffled compared - so much can vary though - acoustics, positioning, carpet, furnishings etc.
Both had a fine piano feel to them.

The 150 certainly has the bigger amps and speakers of the ones we looked at on Ebay was a more recent a model & was much nearer to us, so we went with that - It also cost more...

One thing that would have been good for me at least was the help you learn functions of some of the CVP's.
The CLP-150 can playback any of 50 inbuilt songs so you can play along and I believe you can get it to do the right or left hand only so you can practise one hand at a time.

My daughters like multi tracking and CLP-150 has 16 tracks and 238 songs... More than any of the older CVP's that use flexi discs to record on - I guess these might wear out compared with the CLP's ram. The CVP-201 can record 16 tracks / 60 songs to flexi disk. The one on Ebay now - 1 day to go is reported to be working perfectly...

Both have midi of course but the CLP has USB.

You pays your money...
We are all very happy with this beautifully sounding piece of furniture.