Product: Yamaha CP-60M
Price Paid: US $600
Submitted
06/27/2005
at
03:44pm
by
Gil
Ease of Use
:
10
The Yamaha CP60M is an electroacoustic piano, which means it's a real piano (strings and hammers...) which has a piezzo pickup laying under the strings making it ideal for studio / recording work. It has two outputs, a built in 7 band EQ and a Tremolo effect which sound great, 2 EFX loops (in/out and MIDI out (and MIDI split) !! Generally, it can be considered as the upright version of the older made CP70 and CP80, with the MIDI addon, which makes it actually more similar the the CP70M and CP80M models (those are made like grand pianos, more Rohdes like in construction).
Features
:
10
This amazing sounding piano is 100Kg weighted, but is beautifully and elegantly built. It has 4 handles built into it, two at each side, for easier transportation. It also has wheels and can be transported easily by 2-3 people. Except for the mentioned above, it has 76 keys which appears to be very similar to the U1 keys, and a rather low action. The CP70 for comparison seems to have slightly bigger keys and higher action, which makes playing them both quite different.
The sustain pedal is not as robust as on most acoustic pianos, but not as spongy as on the Kawai EP608 for instance.
It feels GREAT to play and sounds pretty amazing !
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
10
This is to my ears (along with the CP70/80 models) the best electroacoustic piano ever made. I'd actually say it is also the best elctric piano ever made, simply because it delivers the entire experience of an acoustic (Yamaha) piano perfectly !! The sound is SUPERB, crystal clean bell like - especially on the higher octaves.
To my ears, the CP60M sounds a bit more "acoustic" when amplified than the CP70 and CP80 model (which sound superb to my ears, yet has a bit more "electric" flavour to them). Although it is VERY similar to CP70/80.
One point that is very important to make - Other manufacturers which tried to build instruments using the same concept didn't succeed much. For example, the Kawai EP608, which is as well an uright electroacoustic piano, tends to sound weaker at the high notes and play double notes for every key stroke, mainly because it uses a single string per note, all over the keyboard. This doesn't happen in the CP series as Yamaha have used 2 strings per note for the major (higher) part in of the keyboard - which simply keeps volume matched all over the keyboard.
The construction is robust and it is a very well made instruments - still it's more suitable for studio/home use and not for touring.
It doesn't split into two units for "easier" transportation, like the CP70/80, and being an upright piano it simply takes much less space (1.30m width, about 50cm depth).
If you're not familiar with the sound of the CP, simply listen to some Tears for Fears (Songs from the big chair)/ U2 (October)/ Billy Joel (Nylon Courtain), Peter Gabriel (So), Tony Banks, Crime & the City Solution, Simple Minds ("Alive and Kicking" and all over "Once upon a Time")... These amazing sounding instruments were played on so many records in the 70s and 80s, the classical rock piano !!!
Reliability
:
10
10 for that !! Very well made. Yamaha is known for their great built quality. Mine is 20 years old and looks and plays like new !
Customer Support
:
5
I send an email to Yamaha some time ago, asking what would be the exact size of tuning lever I should use. They didn't gave me an answer, telling that I should refer to the local dealer which had no idea... only after a few emails I got a clear answer.
Overall Rating
:
10
This is the best electric piano every musican can have ! period.
You're invited to join the Yamaha CP pianos Yahoo group at:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/yamahacp
