piano for the complete beginner

[stormx]

Hi,

i am 36, and i have just beginned to take piano lessons (too late?  ). No previous musical experience, so i am a complete beginner 

The problem is that i do not have an instrument. As a matter of fact, i only own a little electronic organ with 4 octaves and little keys...Of course, this is useless for piano learning, so i am planning to buy an instrument.

My choice would be digital, for many reasons you all well know. I have been looking at the cheaper ones, and found the PRIVIA CASIO line. To my untrained ear, the sound is pretty good.

I cannot afford more than 1000 dollars. Keep in mind that in Argentina, prices of instruments are much highr than in the States (because of taxes issues)...

Examples:
PX-100 costs 860 dollars
PX-300 costs 1000 dollars

All other brands (YAMAHA, ROLAND, KORG...) are above 1000 dollars...(except for a VERY cheap chinese one, at 550 dollars, whose brand is TAKAMI, but i do not have any references about it...)

Questions:

1) do you think PRIVIA digital pianos are good for a beginner like me?
2) will you pay extra 140 dollars for the PX-300 model?
3) The PX-100 lacks LINE OUT connectors. Can the sound still be directed to external speakers through the HEADPHONES jack?

Thanks in advance for your help,

[JimDunlop]

Hiya.  Argentina huh?  I live in Japan....  We have similar model numbers on the Casio Privias.   I'm no guru, but I've done my fair share of digital piano shopping here in Japan, so I've tested out many a piano recently.

IMHO, the 100 sounds pretty crappy... The 500 is a little better....  The 300 is about the same as the 500.  BUT......  Even the 100 -- there is absolutely nothing wrong with learning on something like that.  What you can afford is what you can afford.  It sounds good enough that you shouldn't feel bad about getting one...  To answer your question: Get the 300 instead of the 100. 

The only thing I would add, is make sure you have as SOLID of a stand as you can get -- I think the Privia series don't actually come packaged with a stand....  At least not here...  AND -- the pedal that comes with it is AWFUL...   If you go for the Casio, make sure you have enough money left over to buy a decent damper pedal for it -- it's one of the "options" you can buy.....  Well worth the money.

Hope that helps.

JD

P.S.  Yes, you can output the headphone jack to an external amp or speakers... But I doubt you will ever have to.  The internal speakers are usually good enough and can be turned up quite loud.