Yamaha CP-30

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.