Yamaha CP-30

Very easy to use. Just turn it on, and push some buttons.

Polyphony? I don't know, but the detune is awesome. I love to play with both in tune, and then slightly detune one so that the chorus effect kicks in. A little more detuning and you get a nice mental hospital sound. The tremolo on mine doesn't work anymore. And where can I get a pedal for the tremolo?

It plays wonderfully for me. The range is very good. I can sound like I'm underwater, in outer space, and anywhere in between or beyond.

As sturdy as it is, I have no worries.

I got this free, and in almost mint condition. It was used by a church, so it was well taken care of. I like to run it through a Digitech RP2000 effects processor. A must for otherworldly sounds. I can create entire universes with this combination.

I bought it quite used, with no manual, and was playing one of the best gigs in my life not 3 days later. You simply put your fingers on the keys and it sounds phat! Plus, unlike a Rhodes or Wurlitzer, it never goes out of tune, which makes up for it being such a beast(weighing about 110 lbs).

This keyboard is perfect for me, as I hate MIDI, menus, and anything that gets in my way (all my keyboards are from before 1980). I love the action, the sound (smooth, warm, and quite punchy). The detunable oscillators help thicken up the sound. It gets a ten for simplicity.

The sound is thick and very reactional to your playing. Its great for any music, especially jazz and funk. I especially like to run it through very light fuzz, just enough that the punch gets rawnchy. I also love it through analog echo machines, like in making tripped-out dub-reggae.

This is the only one of my keyboards that's always at every show (even though my chiropractor has advised against it). Its never not made a noise it was supposed to, or vice versa.

I've owned it for 3 years, and never once had any problem with it.

I'll probably be playing this bad-boy until MIDI digs its clutches into my cold, dead corpse. I love how you can fit almost any other keyboard on top of it (as well as setlists, samplers, mixers; and, as my band mates were so wonderful to point out, beer bottles and ashtrays). I love that Fela Kuti is the only other person I've seen playing one. If only it would just lose about 30 lbs.

Simple, like a Rhodes

I just bought a Fender PA 100 (10/01/01) to use as a pre amp for my keyboards. WOW, what a differance. The cp 30 turned from a sterile sound to a lush sounding keyboard. The piano became very expressive.
I have become used to the feel of this keyboard a have found it confortable now. The reverb on the amp made a diffrence too.

Solid

N/A

Nice addition to my Rhodes.

it trys to be a fender rhodes but falls way short

it is a very solid keyboard. the keys feel great but next to a fender rhodes it merely sounds like a cheap keyboard. the things weight will break your back. really heavy. someone gave it to me. do not buy if you have a lot of gigs cuz it will break your back and the stand is really weird.

9. The keys on mine are great. I find that it plays easier than the rhodes. the action is bouncy and very playable by beginner and pro.

7. It's very simple with the options of comboing various piano's and harpsichords. Also the tremolo and the tremolo pedal input prove to be really useful.

7.5 Once again the tremolo is really nice and warm. when played softly it is very mellow, but when attacked has that slight distortion like the rhodes. I would say good for funk and prog rock music. But definitely not a solo instrument.

10. It is indestructable. While it is really heavy it is really strong. Mine itself has taken a few spills and has been spilt on and it doesn't even flinch. Definitely quality.

8. It is really heavy but if I lost it. I would definitely find another one. however if that was impossible a whurly or a rhodes would definitely cover the job.

All analog, and very simple. The big feature of this piano is
two independent oscillators per key, for detuning. Have schematics.
Like all analog instruments, needs to be tuned on startup.

Full analog polyphony at two oscillators per note: four settings
per oscillator: three filtered triangles and a square "harpsichord"
setting. Tremolo per oscillator with adjustable intensity and speed.
Decay and pitch control per oscillator. Onboard base and treble
controls. Stereo balance. Supports sustain and tremolo footswitch.
In stereo out, one oscillator per channel: sounds *great*. Velocity
sensitive weighted keys with nice dynamic range; feels a bit odd, but
quite usable.

This thing has a truly unique sound: somewhere between an electric
piano and an electric organ, with a tone color all its own. Listen
to any Supertramp album: it's the electronic keyboard responsible for
their signature sound. The keyboard feel is very good once you
get used to it.

If I had one in good condition, I would definitely trust it implicitly.
Mine is suffering after 15+ years: a couple of the oscillators have
developed bad noise, and the main amplifier seems to have some bad
pops in it. Physically, it's a tank (both by weight and sturdiness).

I have no idea. It was a gift from a friend who wanted it out of
his house many years ago.

I'm thinking about whether to keep this, because it's going to be
expensive to get reconditioned and I don't have time to do it myself.
If I regularly recorded or played gigs, I think I'd have one around:
there are some really unique things it can do, and it's good nostalgic
fun.

Very nice.

The action is a bit hard on mine but livable.

I love the simplicity.
It is pretty expressive for such an old thang.

It was worth the purshase

good, old, and very nice action

beautifully cheesy, but gets nice late 70s melloe sound from piano one and two on both channels. Also, try to dutune one channel slightly, creating a chorus effect.Also have a listen to the intro to the Doobies "you keep me runnin"----cp-30, i think so

very tough, nice mactac, i love it!!!!

i couldnt see this thing needing repair.

hooked up to my amp, aaalllmmoossst sounds like a hammond in the mid bass register. Have a boss distortion to one output and a chorus to other, This makes a nice leslie effect between the two, if the channels are balanced right, the distortion has to be non sensetive and you have to have a two channel amp.

It's an electronic piano so it's very easy to use. All you need is an amplifier or you can even plug it in your home stereo. Weights about 40kg and it feels even heavier. Can't carry it on own.

These were made 1979-198?, I think. It has 88 keys with hammeraction. Allthough hammers hit electronic circuits instead of strings. It has 8 layers of sounds, 4 for each channel. Tremolo effect, decay and bass/treble. No midi.

Sound hmmm... I think with right kind of amplifier it could be very suitable for rock, pop and funk bands. As a solo intsument it's a little poor. The sound is more like Wurlitzer than Rhodes. At bottom register it's kinda organlike. Middleregister is the best. It's soft and warm when played carefully and attacky and funky when played hard. If you overdrive with your amplifier it's even better. Upperregister is a problem. Sound is very weak and it has no color. Also it's hard to get the whole register balanced cause the bottom's very powerfull and upper is not. Try to do the beginning of "Riders on the storm"! It's impossible. I found also hard to fit with my other intruments like organs and synths. Like it was always out tune. Weird. But comping with guitars, that's what I liked!

I could depend on this. It has a good vinyl case wich transforms to it's legs. No tuning just keep the dust out it's inside and there are no problems.

Don't have the expierence but I can imagine that it would not be easy to get the help from Yamaha.

I just sold it and will not get it back. But it is just beacause it did'nt fill my needs and took too much room in my small aparment. If I playd in a band I would probably try get a Wurli or Rhodes instead of this one. But still, it's kinda funny and believe that someone could be happy with this.

This is more of an electronic piano than a synth per say, so it doesn't have too many controls on it. A five year-old can use it! Although there are limited presets, with the stereo combination and individually tunable channels, you can come up with cool, warm sounds. The manual is very basic compared to Yamaha's other manuals.

This thing doesn't have much in the technical department. No built-in effects, midi, or expansion capabilities. I did hear once that there was a way of modifying it to get a midi output, especially for the velocity sensitive keyboard. The keyboard is faily large (6 octaves) and somewhat pressure sensitive, but kinda noisy. The polyphony is endless. Built for the road, the top cover acts as legs and holds all the required hardware, including pedals. The top can easily hold another large keyboard, or lots of beer like another respondant mentioned!!

This keyboard has a sound of it's own. It doesn't really sound like a piano, synths today come a lot closer to the REAL thing than this. It can however sound very mellow and different. The keyboard has a strange bounce to it that takes a while to get used to.

This keyboard, like all others of it's era, is built to last. I've had it for more than 15 years now and it never failed me. It weighs over 150 pounds of steel and wood -- very solid.

I've never had the need for repair and I do not know of any upgrades. Like I mentioned above, I know it is possible to modify it to get midi data from the keyboard to drive other midi devices, but I do not know how.

If I were to go back in time, I would've waited to have enough dough to get the CP-70 instead. Although it has a particular sound, it was my only keyboard for a long time and I grew tired of this synth piano sound. Today, I'm glad to have it amongst my other gear. I often use it and would use it more if I could get midi out of it.