Yamaha P200

I have had this instrument for close on four years now and it has stood the test of time. Yeah its heavy ! Especially in a full flightcase but this baby needs looking after and I want it to last and for it to work the next time I unpack it. During the last four years the relibilty is 10 out of 10 which is typical Yamaha build quality make no mistake. Sure some people here have issues with keybed problems who knows why, but for me its been rock solid. My Guitar player purchased a P200 at the same time I did and again he has experienced no problems other than coming to realise that us keyboard players are the real kings !

Anyone could sit down and start playing straight away and the manual is there if you fancy a read. Editing is straight forward and you would not require a patch editor.

Polyphony is 64 note and the keyboard action is brillant, I spent several weeks before deciding to buy the P200 looking at everything that was available at that time from Roland, Korg, Kurzweil, Gem, Oberhiem, Kawai, Technics. The sound won me over from the start and the keyboard action left the others in the staple. Writing this in 2005 Yamaha have produced a new breed of digital pianos P120, P140, P80, P90, P250. Out of ineterest I tried these all out and the P250 is the direct sucessor to the P200. In my opinion the P250 is a retrograde step for Yamaha as the triple strike samples sound very different to the P200 and do not sound anywhere near as good as the AWM samples of the P200. I have also tried the S80 and as a piano it was a let down, the new S90ES I will be trying soon.

Midi capabilites are just ok for simple jobs but I need far more control as far as midi is concerned. I have a oberheim M3000 midi control centre running of the P200 and that works real good and turns the P200s midi master capabilites into what Yamaha should have endowed the instrument with from the start.

No Sequencer and I am glad.

Sounds ! wow I play Jazz Piano and use the instrument in a variety of settings from solo gigs, studio sessions, concerts, The acoustic Piano sounds are still the best and I prefer them over the current Roland stuff, I also have a XV5080 fully expanded with the Concert Piano Board 08 installed. Using the Roland Piano sounds on the P200s keyboard is a nice change but they do not have the authority and musicality of the Yamaha sounds, thats no accident , Yamaha build world class acoustic pianos so they know a thing or two about building musical instruments. The electric pianos are very good especially mixed or used with the onboard tremolo or phaser, very Donald Fagan.

Yes I have depended on it.

Backup, whatever for ?

Yamaha UK have always provided me with great support.

Would I upgrade this instrument, as I say I cannot see or hear anything in the current market place that would want to make me change. Yamaha Engineers and their R&D done this right first time round.

If it was lost or stolen I would get another, yes it was worth every penny.

Hello everyone again..

I'm the guy that had problems before with my p-200. 5 times of repaired sticking keys in one year =)

But since the last reparaing I've never had ANY problems with it. And I have not handled it extremely easy or anything. There are simply two reason for my now "no-problem"-time:

1) Yamaha replaced the whole ground for the keys to lie on.

2) I've always used a Warwick gigbag for carrying it in (not ideal for packing it). The Yamaha guy told me that he thought the problems came from me packing it standing up (the side where the YAMAHA-logo is). A better choice is to let it lie down as usual (with the keys up). I've even made a "couch" that I put under the logo to prevent it from hits. The Yamaha-guy thought that the sticking keys did so because of being pushed from the front side.

Now, AGAIN, I love my P-200.
I even got a autograph on it! From Robert Wells (international famous pianist). Check it out on http://boyzen.tk

This is an update of a review I submitted in 1999, right after I got this piano. I still love everything about it, it has never let me down.

Still the best out there as a piano..it does what it does very well!

The best piano sound in the industry, hands down.

The point of this update...I read all the reviews talking about sticking keys. This is unfortunate. I have had no such problems out of my board in over 6 years of playing it extensively at home and gigging with it occasionally. I hit the keys very hard, as a result of learning to play as a kid on an old upright piano with very hard action. The P200 has never even hiccuped on me. No sticking keys, nothing wrong whatsoever, and I've basically abused this thing. So for anyone thinking of picking one up, don't worry about it...even if I had to replace every key on it, it would be worth it for the sound and action.

If it were lost or stolen I would either find another one used, or possibly check out the p250 which wasn't out when I bought this, only for the increased sounds and sequencer.

No problems here. And I'm non-technical where keyboards are concerned.

The action is excellent. I love it. Another keyboard player sat in with the band a while back though, and hey thought it sucked. To each his own I guess.

Pianos -- Great. EP's -- Very Good. Everything else -- OK, I guess. I don't use it for the organ, except when I'm in fumble and bumble mode.

I too have had sticking keys. I now order them (the last two were D's) from Yamaha and replace them myself. They will add a few pages from the repair manual that tell you what to do. It's not that tough after you've done it once or twice. The keys are $15 each though. I'm up to $60 plus shipping with this problem.

I only call them for the keys. It's a shame you can't order them over the web -- you have to call. (I think. At least, that's the best I've come up with.)

I don't regret the decision to buy this keyboard. The P250 wasn't out yet when I bought this. And when everything is eq'd well, the sound and feel is everything I could hope for. I use a different keyboard for organs, and so I'm set for what I do. I also use an Emu Vintage Keys module, and drive that from the P200. This set-up works well too.

This is a VERY simple stage piano. Accessing sounds is easy. Quick EQing, adding effects, splitting, and transposing are all very simple. I'm not sure I've ever looked at the manual.

There is a handy-dandy feature on the P200 that, in my opinion, Yamaha has screwed up for its younger and more advanced brother, the P250 - THEY'VE MOVED THE MIDI BUTTON!

On the P200 you can toggle MIDI transmit (to layer live) on and off with the touch of a single button just above your hands near the center of the board. I've hit that button so many times it's become second nature. It took a few gigis to get used to its placement, but I always know I'll hit the MIDI button and not TRANSPOSE or SPLIT because the MIDI button is at the end of a row with nothing above or below it. This is no longer the case and is the SINGLE reason I won't be buying a P250 as my next road piano (they've also opted to go with a knob for the main volume instead of a slider - not sure why.

On board effects are simple and intuitive, but really quite spare. I find that I leave the reverb set to STAGE and really never mess with it.

The action is absolutely the best in the field. I've been a stout Roland supporter for years and was shocked to find myself buying a Yamaha over a Roland - but the P200 feels perfect for me.

This is a stage piano so there's not much in the way of expansion, cards or MIDI (well, of course, it carries all the basic MIDI controller functions).

I spend most of any gig with PIANO 2. It's a very live sample with lots of clarity and depth. AND THE ACTION IS THE BEST!

STRINGS are pretty sucky, but I don't tend to use them live - if I really need them, I'll layer them from a rack synth with the help of the handy-dandy MIDI button.

There is no harpsichord or Clavichord - this is a definite drawback.

You have a choice of an upright or electric (fingered) bass. There is no FUNTION or othere such button so to switch between bass sounds you actually have to hold fdown the BASS button for a few seconds. I would imagine that this could be annoying in a live setting if you had need of both.

VERY RELIABLE. This thing is a workhorse for me. I bought one of those FAA cases with wheels on one end and it's kept its quality for over three years.

Which brings us to the caveat that evryone seems to have mentioned. The P200 is a heavy son of a gun. I've taken it up and down stairs, across fields and through hotel back hallways so many times that I'm sure I've done some minro injury to my back. I find myself cursing it while I'm en route and the calling it "my baby" when I'm playing it.

No experience.

I'd buy this board again and it's worth it's cost for its feel and sound - oh and the onboard speakers are actually quite good and adequate for dinner/lounge/rehearsal settings.

I bought this over a Roland RD over three years ago. I'm glad I did. However, my next gig piano will actually be a Roland RD so I can have access to some more (albeit simple) synth capabilities on the road from time to time.

Very easy to use.... You don't need the manual for use as a "normal" stage piano, and you'll handle the basic midi functions without it as well. The display could handle a bit more info, but in general you are never let alone....

The keyboard action is very good, in my opinion only second to the Kwai. But this is depending on personal preferences. The effects are very basic (Reverb, Modulation), but do the trick. Easily controllable via pitch weel. Don't expect any wonders here, though. The organ editor is a plus and covers a wide range of styles. But I prefer to use only the piano vocings and Voce Midi module for the organ sounds. The feature i value the most are the built in speakers, which are of excellent sound quality and sufficient power to rehearse (until the horns are really loud). Althogh the instrument is heavy, you save energy and time moving an amp around all the time....

The basic piano sounds are very well sampled, especially the piano 1/2, which are stereo. As they are taken from Yamaha grand pianos, they sound somewhat hard and clear, but are ideal for Funk / Rock sounds. For classical sounds, they work as well, but are in my opinion less suitable than the roland rd800 samples. The electric piano samples are well engineered as well, especially the preset for "Vintage epiano", which has a pretty rhodes-style sound. The other sound (strings, vibes....) are not too good, except for the electric bass. The organ editor has many features, but always generates a synthetic sound, especially when used with tremolo.
The effects are basic, but for digitial ones okay. The tremolo is slightly synthetic and I use an analog device on gigs. The touch responsibility is very good; you get the feeling of playing a real piano (although a Yamaha....). The responisibilty is also fine with other sounds (you can get a real distorted sound with the rhodes when you press the keys hard....).

Never had any problems, neither on gigs nor when practicing. Even when my buddy let it fall down there was no malfunction. Heavy but reliable, id say. I did not encounter any of malfunctioning keys or anything like that. When i got it new, there was an annoying clirring sound when using internal speakers at full volume, but this disappeared soon after.

I never had any problems, so I can't tell.

A very reliable, well sounding piano. Used it for more than three years, and still happy. I used a P150 and a P250 as well, and they are equally well made... For a allround every day piano at a fair price, I'd always buy a Yamaha. It has a better sound than a Kwai and a better action than a Roland. But this is merely a personal opinion. The only thing I am not too happy about are the effects, which are too synthetic. I use the voices clean, without effects, and use analog devices (a Dynacord Cls222 for tremolo, and an Echocord mini for echo). If you get the opportunity to get one used, it will work fine, but the newer types (p250) have the same key action but more sounds. If you use it as midi keyboard with external voices only, it will do the same.

sbc I guess I will have to eat my words I am Shan and I summited my opinion on yamaha key sticking problem it happend today. I am really concerned with problem I want to know how this can be fixed. I have had this p-200 for three years now. I constantly play blues and boogie woogie. This is serious when you play live. The d key is sticking I feel for the guy that had this 5 times. I hope I can find some answers on this. If anyone can e-mail me on this topic I would really be thankful. If It can be fixed without a tech I would do it myself. I read on one comment that its important not to have drinks around it. Well, I figured that was what the other guys problem was. I apologize for that. I never have drinks around mine. I am shocked to find out that everyone with this problem has the same keys sticking I have not yet called a yamaha dealer about this so if anyone out there would like to talk about this problem you can contact me. My e-mail address is sdfsas38@sbcglobal.net THANK YOU!

Just a note to update on the "sticking keys" problem. I contacted yamaha and was informed there is a service bulletin on the keybed used in the P-series keyboards because of this very problem. Starting with the D's, then the E's, a hairline crack developes at the back of the key, inside the keyboard where you cant see it (I looked inside mine...sure enough, cracks were there on the sticking notes). They have retooled the manufacturing process to alleviate this problem. Yamaha is going to cover the repairs for me, in particular because I play for a nationally known artist and use a "P" keyboard on the road. So I don't know how they will deal with others on this issue. Just contact them : ) (find the # at yamaha.com)

see above

Like I've said before, the P-series is my FAAAAVORITE gig piano, far above any other I've ever used (they are all very similar, basically identical sound and keyboard). Play one..they speak for themselves : )

Hello,
I want to get in contact with someone who knows how to repair broken keys by yourself, so that I won't have to send my piano on service for the 5th time this year.
Please email me if you have any knowledge in reparing a Yamaha P-200.

I love this piano for its sounds.
Don't EVER buy this piano, if youre not intrested in it messing with you all the time. My piano has got keys sticking 5 different times (!!!) only this last year. It's so extremely frustrating when youre out gigging.
I don't know the reason for it, cause I handle it like my own little precious baby. Yamaha --> go to hell.